SUNS powerhouse Matt Rowell will go into the penultimate game of the year on Saturday on track to break three club records in the all-important engine room.

Coming off a best afield game against Essendon last week in which he received the maximum 10 votes in the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year Award, Rowell already holds the SUNS records for most tackles, clearances and contested possessions in a season.

He needs 22 tackles, 28 clearances and 40 contested possessions against Melbourne at People First Stadium on Saturday afternoon and Richmond a t the MCG on Saturday week to better each of them.

With 493 possessions in 21 games this season and set to top 500 for the first time on Saturday, the 23-year-old is #1 in the AFL this year for tackles, #4 in clearances and #3 for contested possessions.

His 169 tackles heads North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri (164) and StKilda captain Jack Steele (153), his 150 clearances are behind only Carlton’s Patrick Cripps (169), Collingwood’s Nick Daicos (163) and Fremantle’s Caleb Serong (160), and his 295 contested possessions trails only Cripps (321) and Daicos (300).

Saturday’s final home game of the season will end an unusually long period of 15 and a half months in games between the two clubs, with their last meeting on 6 May last year.

It’s been a lean time for the SUNS, having lost their last eight meetings after their head-to-head record stood at 3-3 in 2014.

Seventeen games between the clubs have been split across six venues, and oddly the SUNS have beaten the Demons more often at the MCG (twice) than at People First Stadium (once). They’ve also met at Marvel Stadium, the Gabba, Sydney Showgrounds and Alice Springs.

Given that Gold Coast’s last win over Melbourne was Round 5 2014 at the MCG, when Gary Ablett was best afield with 32 possessions and two goals in Sean Lemmen’s fifth game, Lemmens is one of three players at the club with a win over the Demons wearing red and gold.

David Swallow has played in each of the club’s three wins against the Dees, while Alex Sexton banked a win over Melbourne at PFS in his 10^th game in 2013.

Six of the SUNS’ 2024 players have never played against Melbourne – Bodhi Uwland, Sam Closehy, Will Graham, Jake Rogers, Jed Walter, and one player who is of special interest to the visitors – Round 21 after-the-siren hero Mac Andrew.

With the SUNS playing for a club record 11^th win for 2024 on Saturday, local fans won’t be disappointed that Melbourne midfielders Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver will be missing due to injury.

Petracca has polled three Brownlow Medal votes in each of the last four games between the clubs, and Oliver, with five 30-possession games against the SUNS, has polled in five of the last six games between the clubs for nine votes.

Captain Max Gawn has polled 10 votes against the SUNS, and ex-captains Nathan Jones 12 and Jack Viney five, while Gary Ablett and Harley Bennell head the SUNS vote against the Demons with seven each.

Ablett, Bennell and Touk Miller share the SUNS possession record against the Demons at 38, while Alex Sexton’s five goals in a 96-point loss at the MCG in 2018 is the club goal-kicking record.

Petracca’s 40 possessions at PFS in 2022 is Melbourne’s best, while Tom McDonald, Jeff Garlett and Brad Green have each kicked five goals in a game against the Gold Coast.

The Demons will head to the coast 13^th on the ladder with a 10-11 record having missed the finals for the first time in four years.

They were equal 3^rd at Round 8 with a 6-2 record, having beaten four sides now in the top eight - Port (2^nd), Geelong (4^th), Western Bulldogs (7^th) and Hawthorn (8^th). But since then they’ve gone 4-9, beating only StKilda (14^th), North (17^th), West Coast (16^th) and Essendon (10^th).

A 2024 scouting report on the Demons show Viney (21.1ppg) and Trent Rivers (20.95ppg), Ed Langdon (19.8ppg), Gawn (19.2ppg) and Christian Salem (19.2ppg) will be the major ball-winners in the side on Saturday with Petracca (23.4ppg) and Oliver (23.2ppg) missing.

Bayley Fritsch, with 40 goals in 21 games, including bags of four and five, is Melbourne’s leading goal-kicker and equal 10^th in the League.

Kysaiah Pickett, with 34 goals in 19 games, including a five and a four, and Jacob van Rooyen, who has kicked 26 goals in 19 games, with a best of four, are their next major weapons up forward.

In the Coaches Player of the Year Award,  in which Noah Anderson (65) and Matt Rowell (63) lead the SUNS vote and sit 12^th and equal 14^th overall, Gawn (56 votes) heads the Melbourne vote from Petracca (36), Pickett (29), injured ex-SUN Steven May (23), Rivers (22) and Viney (20).

Demons wingman Caleb Windsor, who has had 275 possessions, 49 tackles, 30 clearances and kicked eight goals, is equal 7^th in the market for the NAB AFL Rising Star Award at $81. SUNS Bodhi Uwland is equal 9^th at $101 in a market headed by Geelong’s Ollie Dempsey ($1.10), North’s George Wardlaw ($21) and Colby McKercher ($26) after the fancied pair of West Coast’s Harley Reid and the Bulldogs’ Sam Darcy were ruled ineligible due to suspension.

And for the trivia buffs, who are the four players to have played for both clubs?

Matthew Warnock, who played 32 games with the SUNS from 2012-14 after 55 games at Melbourne, was the first and the only one to have started in Melbourne. Since then Kade Kolodjashnij, Harley Bennell and May have followed the reverse path.