If you’re a bit of a stat-head, or just a footy tragic like me, things like this are right up your alley.
I love finding little things in the game – stat combinations that give you an indication of just how dominant, or surprising as the case may be, some players are. And also, who are reputed as being great, but don’t stack up to their peers.
In Round One, a little graphic caught my eye. Someone made a nice little chart of Jye Caldwell’s game against the Hawks, and noted down a series of stats that looked really impressive.
Here’s the graphic, below.
Pretty good game, huh?
Yeah, a solid outing, but when I started to look through it and compare it to other games, there have been dozens… hundreds of games like that. I wanted something with a little more bite to it. So, I started to look at what Caldwell didn’t do, and the 17 contested touches was what jumped out to me. The tackles, the clearances… I love that – good, hard footy. But the 17 contested touches meant he didn’t make the 30-20-10 Club.
Ah yes… another one of HB’s infamous clubs. This one is a little less difficult to get into, believe it or not. Still not easy, by any stretch, but it has quite a few members.
30+ disposals, 20+ contested possessions, and 10+ clearances. That’s the series of numbers I start to get excited about. That’s the standard for the inside mid.
So I got to digging. Who were the Kings of the 30-20-10 Club, and who were the most surprising players to have reached that stat achievement?
Of course, I am asking questions I know the answer to, and of course, I am going to share those answers with you.
The first player to record one of these games was Wayne Campbell, back in 1999. In Round 15 against the Eagles, Campbell had a blinder, picking up 41 touches, 20 contested possessions, and 12 clearances. It was the first year that contested possessions were recorded officially, so whilst there may be games before this that were just as impressive, we can only go by the official stats. It was one of the three times that Campbell notched 41 touches in his career, but he never made it back into the 30-20-10 Club again.
So, given that, who are the best repeat performers?
Clayton Oliver’s fall from grace in the 2024 season does not dilute what he was able to do across his first eight years in the game. He has 17 games where he surpasses the stat-markers for this club. He is closely followed by Patrick Cripps, on 16.
The Carlton captain picked up three games on Oliver in 2024, as the Demon didn’t manage one 30-20-10 game for the year. Can Oliver bounce back in 2025? Or is this the year Cripps goes past him?
Other players of note in terms of repeat efforts – Josh P Kennedy has 15 games, Patrick Dangerfield has 13, Lachie Neale has 12, The Little Master and Nat Fyfe have 11, and both Ben Cunnington and Tom Liberatore have ten each.
The most surprising members?
Maybe Tony Woods, who picked up a 32/21/10 game back in 2000 for the Hawks against West Coast?
Or Daisy Thomas, who notched 30/20/11 against the Suns in 2012. It was the same game that Gary Ablett went for 53 touches.
Who else? Mitch Robinson once had a monster 35/26/13 game. It was the game that afforded him the highest-ever ranked game in our Robert Flower Wingman of the Year Award.
Eagles fans… Chris Masten got one! 39/20/11 back in 2013. Far out… Nowhere near Matt Priddis’ efforts, but that did surprise me.
But the weirdest of all?
James Magner.
He played 19 games for the Demons across 2012/13 and had one monstrous outing in Round Two of 2013, against West Coast, where he picked up 32/20/11. What happened to that bloke.
Here’s the complete list
17x Clayton Oliver
16x Patrick Cripps
15x Josh P Kennedy
13x Patrick Dangerfield
12x Lachie Neale
11x Gary Ablett, Nat Fyfe
10x Ben Cunnington, Tom Liberatore
7x Rory Laird, Matt Priddis
6x Jack Macrae
5x Daniel Kerr, Anthony Koutoufides, Tom Mitchell, Scott Thompson
4x Chris Judd, Jarryd Lyons, Tom Rockliff, Rory Sloane, Jobe Watson, Scott West
3x Dayne Beams, Simon Black, Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Kelly, Sam Mitchell, Scott Pendlebury, Brett Ratten, Matt Rowell, Dane Swan, Adam Treloar,
2x Shaun Burgoyne, Trent Cotchin, Nick Daicos, Robbie Gray, Tom Green, Brodie Grundy, Dustin Martin, Touk Miller, David Mundy, Marc Murphy, Luke Parker, Caleb Serong, Dom Sheed, Luke Shuey,
1x Taylor Adams, Paul Ahern, Michael Barlow, Travis Boak, Jude Bolton, Matthew Boyd, Jared Brennan, Will Brodie, Zak Butters, Josh Caddy, Wayne Campbell, Brad Crouch, Ed Curnow, Josh Dunley, Adrian Fletcher, Josh Francou, Rob Harvey, Paul Haselby, George Hewett, Jacob Hopper, Steve Johnson, Josh Kelly, Brett Kirk, James Magner, Chris Masten, Brent Moloney, Leigh Montagna, Jaeger O’Meara, Ryan O’Keefe, Darcy Parish, Luke Power, Dion Presta, Mitch Robinson, James Rowbottom, Joel Selwood, Steele Sidebottom, Jy Simpkin, Andrew Swallow, David Swallow, Tim Taranto, Dale Thomas, Jack Viney, Callan Ward, Ollie Wines, Tony Woods, James Worpel, Tristan Xerri, Elliot Yeo, Dayne Zorko.
And screw it, a bit of self-promotion – we’ve done our 40/20/10 Club, it has 55 games that have made the cut, with Ablett leading (x6) from Neale (x5), then Oliver (x4) and Kennedy (x4).
A 50/20/10 club is one I haven’t done. It’d be a short article and would have just one bloke in it – Lachie Neale (x1)
So, how about that. Nice stat working there, HB.
Thanks… I try hard.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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