This weekend, we added two more names to the membership of the 40-20-10 club, with both Tom Green and Zak Butters having monster outings in their teams’ respective wins.
Given that has never happened before, it is a good time to reflect and have a look at the 40-20-10 club and its exclusive midfield membership.
Talking stats can be dangerous. One slip… one incorrect number here or there and people jump down your throat like they have a strange affiliation for phlegm.
Fair enough, too, I suppose. I mean, the numbers are right there to use – all I have to do is add them up, or even read them properly to begin with, and there should be no problem, right? Then why do I have such problems?
Anyway, a way around this is to concoct my own stats, or at least my own combination of stats to form a different one. That way, a slip here or there can be due to creativity, rather than unbridled stupidity. Or at least I can pretend that’s the reason.
As much as stats tend to burn me, I gravitate back to them often. I like to see which players do what and how it impacts their teams. I like to look for little anomalies that mean something, but more than that, I like to look for little things that mean nothing.
And that’s where we find ourselves today – with the update of The Mongrel’s 40-20-10 club.
So, what does it all mean? Well, that’s the easy part. We often see players rack up big numbers through the midfield. We’ve seen Tom Mitchell top 50 touches a record three times. Lachie Neale notched his first and only 50-disposal game in 2019, making him the most recent player to do so, but we often laud certain types of disposals.
“Oh, Patrick Cripps had 15 clearances….”
“Man, Clayton Oliver had 25 contested touches…”
But what about when a player combines 40 touches, 20 contested possessions, and ten or more clearances? That is a dominant set up numbers for a midfielder who thrives on the contest. How often has that been done, and who has been the best at it?
That’s what I am here for. Here are the 27 members of the 40-20-10 club as we make our way toward the end of the 2024 season
Oh, and before you go any further, there are some undoubted stars who will be missing from this list due to the fact that contested possessions and clearances were not recorded for the majority of their careers (Buckley, Ricciuto, Williams, and so on.
SIX TIMES… THE MAN
GARY ABLETT JUNIOR
The Little Master tops another statistical table. All of these games came when he was a member of the Gold Coast Suns. He picked up two in 2011, one in 2012, another in 2013, then grabbed one more in each of 2016, and 2017.
ROUND 8, 2011 (41-23-13)
ROUND 24, 2011 (43-22-13)
ROUND 3, 2012 (45-27-13)
ROUND 17, 2013 (49-20-10)
ROUND 14, 2016 (40-25-15)
ROUND 6, 2017 (45-27-18)
A FISTFUL OF MASSIVE GAMES
LACHIE NEALE
He hasn’t had one since 2022, but Lachie Neale looks the most likely to knock the Gold Coast Legend (just kidding, Cats fans) off the top of the heap.
Neale has had 10+ clearances in seven games in 2024, but he has not had 40+ once, and only had 20+ contested touches once.
ROUND 18, 2016 (42-22-10)
ROUND 3, 2019 (43-26-15)
ROUND 23, 2019 (51-25-14)
QUALIFYING FINAL, 2021 (46-25-13)
ROUND 2, 2022 (41/22/12)
AWESOME FOUR-SOME?
TOM MITCHELL
The writing was on the wall for Tom Mitchell in 2022.
After Sam Mitchell replaced Alastair Clarkson in the coaches’ box, Tom’s role was destined to change, and with the new coach looking to invest in youth, the 2018 Brownlow Medallist was reduced to a lesser role. With his ensuing trade to Collingwood, and a different role in the midfield at his new club, it’s meant no additions to the 40-20-10 tally for six years.
ROUND 22, 2017 (44-20-11)
ROUND 2, 2018 (40-23-13)
ROUND 9, 2018 (46-26-11)
ROUND 20, 2018 (43-22-13)
JOSH P KENNEDY
And on four for his career is where JPK will remain.
An absolute warrior, JPK is one of just three men to record 400 contested touches in a season. And he did it three times.
ROUND 17, 2014 (41-29-12)
ROUND 19, 2016 (45-23-11)
SEMI-FINAL 2016 (42-21-10)
ROUND 6, 2021 (42-22-11)
CLAYTON OLIVER –
With three massive games in 2022, Clayton Oliver has jumped right into contention, and looked to be the odds-on favourite to surpass the feats of the great Gary Ablett Junior.
Of course, stuff has happened since then, and Clarrie remains on the same number
At his best, Oliver has every tool possible at his disposal to rack up these numbers. He is clean even in the wet, his hands are as quick as they come, he stands up under pressure, and is consistently the last player to get up from under a pack. I hope we get to see him at his best again soon.
ROUND 2, 2019 (44-25-13)
ROUND 6, 2022 (41/22/13)
ROUND 10, 2022 (45/22/11)
ROUND 21, 2022 (42/24/14)
THE TRIOS OF TERROR
None.
THE DOUBLE BANGERS
MATT PRIDDIS
Not many would have picked this one, but Priddis was an absolute warrior for the Eagles, and is probably underappreciated by those outside Western Australia.
Priddis picked up his 40-20-10 games in 2014 and 2016, and will feature heavily when I compile the 30-10-10 club at some stage (30 disposals, ten clearances, and ten tackles in a game).
ROUND 20, 2014 (42-22-12)
ROUND 1, 2016 (43-24-12)
NAT FYFE
Injury slowed Fyfe significantly in the last few years, and it seems certain that he will not get close to this type of form again?
Like Mitchell, it’s been a while…
ROUND 5, 2018 (43-21-13)
ROUND 9, 2015 (40-26-10)
PATRICK DANGERFIELD
Very close quite a few times, but he got the job done twice in what were his peak years as a player.
Seems to be more of an impact player now, making big plays rather than the consistently dominant force. Sadly, that does not bode well for racking up big numbers.
ROUND 12, 2016 (48-23-13)
ROUND 15, 2017 (45-25-13)
DANE SWAN
Underrated when people talk about the great mids – even with a Brownlow to show for his efforts.
Swan was a beast in the middle, notching 40+ disposals on 13 occasions, with his most complete games coming as part of his 40-20-10 efforts.
ROUND 5, 2012 (42-20-13)
ROUND 17, 2012 (49-20-13)
DUSTIN MARTIN
There’s no list without Dusty.
Only had 40+ three times, but two of those outings have been monstrous, with the third seeing him fall short of the 40-20-10 mark by just two contested touches.
ROUND 17, 2016 (43-22-13)
ROUND 3, 2017 (40-21-15)
TOM ROCKLIFF
Another underrated star in his day, Rockliff was a monster at stoppages and rarely met a contest he did not want to crack into.
His admission to the 40-20-10 club first came in 2014, and five years later, he proved he belonged, with his second effort.
ROUND 14, 2014 (45-21-12)
ROUND 8, 2019 (41-23-10)
JACK MACRAE –
Hasn’t managed to trouble this stat in the past couple of years – mainly due to the spread of the load in the Bulldogs’ midfield, but remains a constant threat.
Finds the footy as well as anyone, but is out of midfield favour at the Dogs, and may have to explore elsewhere to find a place in the guts on a regular basis
ROUND 7, 2018 (40-25-12)
ROUND 20, 2019 (45-21-12)
PATRICK CRIPPS
The only player to notch this mark in the 2023 season, Cripps started the season on fire, and in Round Five, cleaned up the GWS midfield with a dominant display of power football.
ROUND 20, 2022 (41/21/12)
ROUND FIVE, 2023 (42/20/13)
THE SWINGING SINGLES
WAYNE CAMPBELL – ROUND 15, 1999 (41/20/12) – The Father of the 40-20-10 Club, with the earliest recorded 40-20-10 game.
BRETT KIRK – ROUND 9, 2009 (41/21/15)
MATTHEW BOYD – ROUND 5, 2011 (45-24-12)
SAM MITCHELL – ROUND 4, 2016 (44-20-10)
JACK STEVEN – ROUND 16, 2016 (41-22-12)
DAVID MUNDY – ROUND 19, 2016 (44-24-13)
DAYNE BEAMS – ROUND 9, 2017 (40-21-11)
STEELE SIDEBOTTOM – ROUND 4, 2018 (43-26-12)
JOSH KELLY – ROUND 20, 2018 (41-22-10)
DARCY PARISH – ROUND 16, 2021 (43-28-13)
OLLIE WINES – ROUND 16, 2021 (43-23-14)
TIM KELLY – ROUND 7, 2021 (42-22-13)
JACK VINEY – ROUND 16, 2023 (41/24/10)
NICK DAICOS – ROUND 9 2024 (41/22/14)
ZAK BUTTERS – ROUND 23 2024 (42/20/10)
TOM GREEN – ROUND 23 2024 (40/23/13)
OTHER NOTES
No Bont? No Judd? No Cunnington? No Sloane? No Cousins?
Yep, none of them ever hit the 40-disposal mark in their career, let alone put these three stats together. I was pretty surprised by that in regard to a few of them, as well.
Christian Petracca missed on joining the club, and also missed being the only man to top the 40-20-10 milestone in a Grand Final. His 39-11-24 game in 2021 will go down as one of the better GF performances in history.
As always, if I have missed one, my apologies. It’s never fun when someone throws something back in your face, so if you’re going to do that, do it nicely, eh?
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