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AFL top 100: Round 13 highlights (part 1)

Chad Wingard of the Power celebrates a goal during the 2018 AFL round eight match between the Port Adelaide Power and the Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval on May 12, 2018 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
16th June, 2018
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There were only six games in Round 13, and two of those (Carlton v Fremantle and Gold Coast v St Kilda) would appear to have little influence on the makeup of the final eight.

However, every game has a number of individual milestones for the players taking part. The six games were spread over four days with the Thursday night encounter between Port Adelaide and Western Bulldogs starting proceedings.

The game went pretty much as expected, with Port taking an unassailable lead by quarter time and the Western Bulldogs putting up a fight in the last three quarters but dragged down by more long-term injuries to key players.

For Port Adelaide, Chad Wingard joined Matthew Primus on the Power’s all-time game players list. Primus was one of the first players for Port Adelaide when they joined the AFL in 1997. His first season of AFL was played at Fitzroy in 1996 and – in that year – which was Fitzroy’s final year he ran runner-up in the club’s Best and Fairest.

He opted not to go to Brisbane and signed with Port Adelaide. Despite a number of serious injuries during his time with the club, Primus gave Port good service, being runner-up in the club’s Best and Fairest in his first year and winning it in 2002. The grandchild of Geelong legend Reg Hickey, he later coached Port Adelaide.

The game also saw Sam Gray draw level with Nathan Krakouer on Power’s all-time game players list, but the main interest – apart from the result – was who would finish the game as Port Adelaide’s all time no 2 goal scorer? Before the game, it was Jay Schulz who played in 71 games at Richmond (for 58 goals) before returning to Adelaide to play for Power.

He finished in 2016 with 272 goals for Port Adelaide. Sitting one goal behind him before the game were current players Justin Westhoff and Robbie Gray. By the end of the game, Robbie Gray had kicked three goals to move into 2nd place on Port Adelaide’s all-time top 100 goal scorers, and Justin Westhoff had scored 2 goals to move into third place.

For the Western Bulldogs, captain Easton Wood – who was playing well before suffering a long-term injury – the game took him to level with former champion ruckman Barry Round.

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Round, who played more games for Sydney and became a legend of the VFA when playing and coaching Williamstown, played for Footscray (now Western Bulldogs) after being recruited from Warragul in 1969. Future Bulldog star Toby McLean played his 50th game of AFL and Mitch Wallis – who last week joined the Top 100 game players at Western Bulldogs – kicked 2 goals to take him to within 6 goals of also being a top 100 goal kicker at the club.

He may make it by season’s end but – if the trade rumours are true – he may not last long inside either top 100. Marcus Bontempelli, another player who can hold his head high despite the loss, also kicked 2 goals to join Peter Welsh and Ilija Grgic just outside the Bulldogs’ top 60 goal kickers.

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