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The final two games of Round 5 are full of promise.
The underperforming Crows will meet the overperforming Suns in a game that will go along way towards defining their seasons.
The Crows will have a lot of incentive to not only turn their season around, but also to celebrate the 300 game milestone of the exciting Eddie Betts and the 150th game of teammate Brodie Smith.
Betts has had a magnificent career at both of his clubs, Carlton and Adelaide. Originally from Templestowe and Calder Cannons, he joined Carlton in 2005 and over the next nine years accumulated 184 games and 290 goals, many of which made the highlight reel due to his marking, goal kicking from impossible angles, evasiveness or tackling skills.
In 2013 he became a highly sought-after player, not only for his goal-kicking skills but also his ability to attract and excite fans.
He moved to Adelaide in 2014, a decision that has paid off handsomely for both the club and Eddie and has an area of the grandstand full of admirers close to the boundary in the forward pocket who share in his every emotion during the game.
Unable to retain the number 19 jumper that he held at Carlton, he set about making the number 18 guernsey just as famous and has done so, so far scoring only 11 fewer goals in the jumper despite playing 69 fewer games at the Crows than at Carlton.
He has been leading goalkicker at his club six times: four times at the Adelaide Crows and twice at Carlton. Eddie is a remarkably resilient player, having played over 20 games a year in eight of the nine years prior to 2018. He will be the 86th league player to achieve the 300 game milestone and (temporarily, we hope) join the nine players whose careers finished on that number.
He will also creep up the games played ladder at the Crows, joining 1990s player and 1996 Best and Fairest winner Matthew Liptak and 1998 East Perth recruit Ian Perrie on 116 games. Although both players were regarded as good goal scorers for the Crows, they finished their careers at the club over 150 goals shy of Betts’ total.
No doubt the 150th games of Brodie Smith and Gold Coast’s Pearce Hanley will be overshadowed on the day, particularly as this milestone has been achieved 1,100 times more than the 300 game milestone and Hanley’s total includes 129 games with Brisbane, but both players deserve recognition for a substantial AFL career.
For Gold Coast, if he plays, Sam Day will pass the game tally of Gary Ablett and Peter Wright will join Jarrad Brennan in the top quartile of game players at the club.
The Easter Monday game between the Hawks and Geelong will see Cats’ captain Joel Selwood join Andrew Mackie as the eighth greatest game players of all time at the club and Harry Taylor match Gary Ablett senior on the 21st most number of games.
Chad Wingard will be the third 150th AFL game player of Round 5, adding a third game at Hawthorn to his total at Port Adelaide.
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