Jack Lukosius, set to post his AFL century against Hawthorn at People First Stadium, will get to 100 games having missed just 13 games in his career.
Only Touk Miller (10) and Charlie Ballard (12) have watched less games from the sidelines en route to their first major milestone in a club where the average has been 34.3 games missed.
Jarrod Harbrow missed 17 games on his way to 100 games for the club to rank fourth on this list from Jarrod Witts (23), Michael Rischitelli, Tom Lynch and Nick Holman (25), Matt Shaw (30), Ben Ainsworth (31), Gary Ablett and Aaron Hall (36), Steven May (42), Brandon Matera (43), Trent McKenzie (47), Alex Sexton (50), Sam Day (51), Rory Thompson (56) and David Swallow and Sean Lemmens (57).
Lukosius, 23, will be the SUNS’ third-youngest 100-gamer just behind Steven May and Miller, and with a win over the Hawks tomorrow night he will sit third on the club’s 100-game win list. He has enjoyed 32 wins and a draw through 99 games, and will be hoping to sit just behind May (34-1-65) and Holman (34-0-66).
More important to Lukosius, though, will be the result itself because only six SUNS players have enjoyed a win in their 100th game. And only May and Rischitelli have done so in front of friends and family at home.
A teenage twin sportsman of the highest order, Lukosius was a senior SANFL footballer with Woodville-West Torrens at 16 in 2017 and a fast bowler for South Australia at the Australian Under-17 cricket championships in the same year.
But football was always going to be his preferred sport, and he has not looked back since being drafted by the SUNS with pick #2 in the 2018 AFL National Draft behind Carlton’s Sam Walsh.
Ironically, Walsh, who is scheduled to play his first game of the season this weekend after injury problems, will also play his 100th game in Round 5 barring mishap.
Lukosius and Walsh will be the sixth and seventh members of the Class of 2018 to 100 games.
Heading this list and yet to miss a game since his debut in Round 1 2019 is St.Kilda’s Callum Wilkie, who was taken with pick #3 in the rookie draft. He had played 113 games going before this weekend.
Others to have topped 100 games are new Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee (pick #5 – 110 games), Geelong’s Tom Atkins (rookie pick #11 – 108 games), Sydney’s Nick Blakey (pick #10 – 107 games) and injured Bulldogs star Bailey Smith (pick #7 - 103 games).