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AFL top 100: Bring on Round 2 (Part 2)
Stephen Shortis
Roar Guru
9th May, 2020
2
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Stephen Shortis
Roar Guru
9th May, 2020
2

In Part 1 I covered the AFL traditional milestones that are likely to be broken if (or when) football returns in 2020.

In addition to these AFL milestones, there are also club milestones being achieved each week. When Round 2 gets underway, apart from the 150 AFL games totals of Robbie Tarrant and Neville Jetta which were also club milestones, there are three other potential club milestones, all of which feature players from the two newest AFL clubs, Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast.

The first involves an import into Greater Western Sydney, Phil Davis, who will play his 150th game for the Giants next time he takes the field in an AFL game. Davis was the first player to commit to the Giants in August 2011. After his two years at Adelaide yielded 15 games in year one and three in year two along with one goal, Davis moved to Greater Western Sydney as co-captain in the club’s first year with Luke Power and Callan Ward.

After year one, Davis and Ward shared the captaincy until last year. Davis becomes the third player to reach the 150-game milestone for the Giants behind Ward and champion forward Jeremy Cameron.

Cam McCarty went from the Giants to another relatively new club, Fremantle,]. He made it into the Giants team late in 2014 and played one game followed by 20 games in 2015. In 2016, he stood out of football after being refused a transfer to Fremantle in his home state.

Eventually cleared in 2017, he has now chalked up 49 games for the Dockers, and game 50 could also see him kick his 100th AFL goal. McCarthy currently features on the AFL top 100 game-players and goalscorers at both Greater Western Sydney and Fremantle.

Jaeger O’Meara will have a much harder time making it into the top 100 game-players and top 100 goalscorers at his second club, Hawthorn. With 930 players now having passed through the club, it is only the top 10.7 per cent who make the cut. That translates to 121 games or 61 goals, much more than was required at his original club, Gold Coast Suns.

From the historical milestone viewpoint, his next game is a big one for Hawthorn’s Shaun Burgoyne. Already the greatest indigenous game-player and the greatest two-club game-player, his next game will take him to level with former Essendon champion Simon Madden as the sixth greatest AFL game player of all time. Madden is another player who has done it all: two premierships, three times All-Australian, four times best and fairest, three-time leading goalkicker at Essendon and Norm Smith medallist.

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Four other AFL top 100 game-players will also improve their position among the elite:

Gary Ablett will claim outright 17th position on the table by passing Luke Hodge.

Scott Pendlebury will equal Michael O’Loughlin and Chris Langford in 74th position.

Joel Selwood will move within three games of 300 and join Lenny Hayes and Wayne Campbell, who finished their careers on 297 games and hold equal 91st position.

Lance Franklin will escape the ruck of nine players who finished their careers on exactly 300 games and join Len Thompson and Shannon Grant on 301.

Franklin’s game – which will be his 119th game for Sydney – will take him into the top 100 game-players for the Swans and make him the seventh player (including two other current players) who hold a place in both categories (games and goals) in the top 100 at AFL and also at two different clubs.

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