Obviously it is just purely hypothetical at this stage. But I would like to know which of our current crop of Demons players is most likely to play over 300 games for the Melbourne Football Club and possibly break David Neitz's record of 306 games?

Personally I think Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw, Christian Salem and James Harmes are the mostly like to play over 300 games....maybe some of them over 350+ games.

Thoughts on who else might be likely to play over 300 games for the Melbourne Football Club?

 

Think Oliver will be the next to 300, pretty robust. 

Luke Jackson if he can wear a mouthguard

300 games is an exceptional milestone. We've a few players in the approx 24yo bracket who'll be around 150 games by end of next season. 300 games is another 6 uninterrupted and finals-playing years on top of that. 

I'd agree Oliver would be a possibility.  Trac's early career ACL might’ve slightly dented his chances. Rivers if he stays fit and with us might be a chance, but way too much water to pass under the bridge yet.

A shoutout to TMac, currently on 193 games - should notch up a well deserved 200 game milestone for us next year - he looked gone this time 12 months ago.

Edited October 10, 20213 yr by gs77
Typo

Yeah, massive touch wood and all, but as I recall it Oliver hasn't missed a game since debut. Goodwin has only coached one game without Oliver in the side, and that was as a stand-in for Essendon!

124 games at 24 years is a good start.

Many of our other mid-age players have had injury interrupted starts to their career or took a while to find their feet at AFL level, which makes 300 a little harder.

Jones himself had 12 seasons missing only one or zero games, which is just incredible and shows the kind of injury and form run it takes to hit 300.

If I had to take a guess from the kids I'd actually suggest Trent Rivers. Think Kade Simpson - never got an All-Australian nod and took ten years before he won his first club B&F, but he just kept on being excellent and deservedly notched 342 games.

Contradicting what I said a moment ago about the difficulties of reaching 300 after an interrupted early career, I wouldn't put it past Lever to just keep going and going. Ten years from now he will have lost a few steps of speed but he will also only get wiser and harder. I can see him doing a Fletcher-style run. Maybe not to age 40 but enough to clock 300 games. Plus, his injuries cost him form more than so many actual games total; missed about 20 games from 2019-20 overall.

This exercise has put me more in a frame of mind of thinking about just how many realistic 200-gamers we have on our list right now, and even more than that, just how many of those still have a hundred games in hand waiting to play!

the obvious answer is oliver given the amount of games he's played, his age, and his durability thus far

left field option could be charlie spargo

1 hour ago, Nelo said:

Think Oliver will be the next to 300, pretty robust. 

Takes a lot of hard knocks though ,could these wear him down over time. 

1 hour ago, Nelo said:

Think Oliver will be the next to 300, pretty robust. 

I think we’d all love that.  But first we have to keep him. Wouldn’t it be great if he signed a contract similar to Trac’s?!

12 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

left field option could be charlie spargo

Charlie won’t wear out his kicking leg. But as long as he keeps finding a teammate inside 50, that’s fine by me.

a bit off topic but this sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole

1 hour ago, gs77 said:

A shoutout to TMac, currently on 193 games - should notch up a well deserved 200 game milestone for us next year - he looked gone this time 12 months ago.

2022 prospective demons milestones to look forward to:

50 games: Jordon (25 needed), Sparrow (22), Petty (20), Jackson (20), Rivers (16), Pickett (11), Weideman (1)

50 MFC games: Langdon (9), May (2)

100 games: MBrown (24), Fritsch (15), Hunt (6)

100 MFC games: Melksham (17), Hibberd (11)

150 games: Petracca (23), Salem (20), BBrown (7)

200 games: McDonald (7), Melksham (3)

Weed hasn’t even played 50 games!?

Oliver will be our first to play 400 games.

Christian and Clayton will be forever young in my head. It'll always be 2021 and they'll be cutting a swath through opposition teams like a hot knife through butter for eons to come. Up in heaven, where joy reigns, there's already a big screen playing their highlight reel. 10,000 games each. 

Salem 26 years old.  130 games.  Probably needs another 8 years, but he isn't playing a crash and bash role in the middle, like Oliver.

Could be like Burgoyne still going at 34....

29 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

Salem 26 years old.  130 games.  Probably needs another 8 years, but he isn't playing a crash and bash role in the middle, like Oliver.

Could be like Burgoyne still going at 34....

Hope so but will Salems hamstrings last...

Probably Oliver but the way he started, Bowey

Oliver

Kozzzy

Rivers 

Dogga