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Friday night’s game featuring Adelaide and Western Bulldogs in Adelaide may now be just a bit closer than originally imagined with some Adelaide stars missing and some Western Bulldog Top 100 game players returning from injury.
For Adelaide, they are minus Taylor Walker, Mitch McGovern and Matt Crouch who all join Rory Sloane on the sidelines (I think three Rorys in the team is just too many!). However, they do still have Richard Douglas – the current leading game player at the club – who this week will pass Graeme Johncock and be outright 11th on the club’s top 100 game players.
Further down the list, Daniel Talia will cause Patrick Dangerfield to slip one position further down.
For the Western Bulldogs, Luke Dahlhaus will no doubt be pleased to have some company from the Bulldogs’ top 100: Easton Wood will equal Stuart Magee’s career total at the club and Jordan Roughead will equal Don Ross, Darren Baxter and current North Melbourne player Shaun Higgins in the top 80 at the club.
Matt Suckling – a valuable pick up for the club from Hawthorn – will play his 150th AFL game.
In the most unpredictable game of the round, Greater Western Sydney’s Adam Tomlinson plays his 100th game and will this be enough to inspire his teammates against the surprise packet of the year, North Melbourne? For the Kangaroos, Jamie Macmillan continues to climb the ranks, this week passing Mark Roberts and equalling Peter Steward.
Game three of the round features Gold Coast and Port Adelaide, where Aaron Hall will pass the departed Brandon Matera (now West Coast Eagles) and Rory (another one!) Thompson will equal ex-teammate Dion Prestia. At Port Adelaide, Charlie Dixon will play his 50th game for the club while Justin Westhoff will pass the number of games played by Brendan Lade.
Essendon would be hoping their two first game inclusions (Jordan Ridley and Dylan Clarke) will combine with the three current top 100 players on the ground this week (David Zaharakis, Cale Hooker and Dyson Heppell) to show a much-improved performance on their recent efforts.
Geelong, however, will be celebrating Harry Taylor equalling the playing record of George Todd and Gary Ablett equalling Tom Harley and are unlikely to let this one get away.
The unpredictable Swans – particularly at home – have Nick Smith’s 200th game to celebrate – as an incentive to win Kieran Jack also has reason to be excited: this game will take him to equal fourth on the list of AFL players who have donned the 15 jumper in the most games (equal with Bulldog’s Scott Wynd).
Heath Grundy will also move up a slot in games played for Sydney, drawing equal with Stephen Wright and Mark Bayes.
For Fremantle, Michael Johnson will join Shane Parker in fifth place on the club’s all-time game players.
At Collingwood, Scott Pendlebury will try again (after being a late withdrawal last week) to join coach Nathan Buckley at No 7 on the club’s all-time game players list, and Jarryd Blair will join dynamic centreman/rover Barry Price further down the list.
Saints’ former captain Alan Morrow will be joined by Jack Steven in Saturday night’s game.
Carlton will welcome back Marc Murphy after a long absence and he will eventually pass Sergio Silvangi on the list and Melbourne’s Tom McDonald will continue his progress up the list, this week equalling Jim Abernathy, Ian Ridley and Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy.
(Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Sam Mayes will play his 100th game at Brisbane while Liam Shiels at the Hawks will draw level with former coach Peter Schwab and Luke Breust will equal former goal kicking champion Alec Albiston who is under treat on both the game playing and goal scoring fronts.
The final game of Round 8 between West Coast Eagles and Richmond should be a blockbuster and may include the highlight of Will Schofield equalling Sam Butler’s game playing career at the Eagles and Jamie Cripps equalling Mark Nicoski.
At Richmond, Jack Riewoldt will celebrate passing Mark Lee in games played, and joining St Kilda’s Max Hudghton as the third most prolific wearer in the AFL of jumper No 8. Dustin Martin will enjoy emulating the games played of Tiger legend Royce Hart.
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