If Sam Collins was so inclined, he could be excused for mounting a photograph of ex-Fremantle coach Ross Lyon on a dart board and arming himself with a few darts. And he might like to place an annual Christmas order of a carton of French champagne to send to the now St.Kilda coach.

Why? Because Lyon is directly responsible for the darkest moment in Collins football journey, and indirectly responsible for his rebirth as one of the premier key defenders in the AFL, and a shining light in Gold Coast SUNS history.

When Collins won his second SUNS club championship, or best & fairest (B&F), on Monday night it was like the fifth instalment of an almighty “you were wrong” message to the man who changed his life … who defied popular opinion in Perth seven years ago and delisted the ever-combative defender 14 games into his AFL career. A dart speared right through his eye.

There might be part of Collins that thinks the job is not finished, but to the everyday football fan his consecutive finishes of 1^st-4^th-5^th-2^nd-1^st in the SUNS B&F says ‘job done … and superbly so.’

The bearded 30-year-old enforcer, barely recognisable from the fresh-faced youngster sent packing door by the Dockers, has joined the uber-elite of the SUNS’ 149 players all-time.

Belatedly included in the 44-man All-Australian squad this year, Collins sits alongside Touk Miller and Tom Lynch as two-time B&F winners. This is behind only Gary Ablett, who claimed the club’s highest individual honor four times, and ahead of one-time winners Jarrod Witts, David Swallow, Jarrod Harbrow and Noah Anderson.

Significantly, his five-year run in the top five is a club best, with Ablett having gone 1^st-1^st-1^st-4^th from 2011-14 before dropping to 9^th in 2015, and Miller going 2^nd-6^th-2^nd-1^st-1^st from 2018-22. Anderson has the only other streak of five consecutive top 10 finishes, having placed 6^th-8^th-2^nd-1^st-5^th in his five years at the club.

After an injury-disrupted nine-game first season with the SUNS in 2019 Collins has been a powerhouse – the player opposition key forwards don’t want to play against.

As professional as they come on and off the field, he’s been relentless as the leader of the defensive unit and his weekly assignment on the #1 opposition forward. And he’s been extraordinarily resilient, playing 104 of a possible 107 games in the last five years to climb to 15^th on the SUNS all-time games list at 113 despite not joining the club until its 9^th year in the AFL.

Collins’ 2020-2024 games total is equal with Anderson and ahead of Charlie Ballard (101) and Swallow (101), Ben King (95), Ben Ainsworth (93) and Touk Miller (91).

With the benefit of hindsight, and an analysis of round-by-round votes, Collins had clinched the B&F six games from the end of the season. Because at Round 18, when he had 58 votes to lead Anderson (42), Sam Flanders (41), Matt Rowell (39), Mac Andrew (37) and Bodhi Uwland (61), he already had bettered the 56-vote total of runner-up Uwland.

Under a revised voting system whereby each player is rated 0-5 by the match committee in each game, Collins polled a maximum five in the opening round to share the top of the notional leaderboard, and never dropped further than second. He was #1 after 19 of 23 games, and #2 in the count behind Rowell at Rounds 2-7-8-10.

Game by game he polled 5-4-4-1-5-1-1-1-5-4-2-5-5-1-5-4-5-0-1-1-4-0-4.

In his double-up games he had mixed outcomes, polling 5-4 against Essendon, North and Richmond, 1-1 against Brisbane and West Coast, and 1-0 against GWS.

Against the sides the SUNS played only once, he polled ‘5’ against Collingwood, Hawthorn, Port and St.Kilda, ‘4’ against Adelaide, Geelong and Western Bulldogs, ‘2’ against Carlton, and, to his disappointment, ‘1’ against his old club Fremantle and Sydney.

He missed out against Melbourne in the last home game of the year, when Uwland polled three votes and five other players polled one vote – Witts, Ballard, Nick Holman, Connor Budarick and Sean Lemmens.

Collins’ battle to break into the AFL, his delisting by the Dockers and his move to the SUNS is a fascinating study in the ‘sliding door’ moments that combine in the world of the AFL draft, trade and list management system.

Originally from suburban Donvale in Melbourne, 20km east of the CBD, he was product of the Oakleigh Chargers, where he’d played with Melbourne 200-game vice-captain Jack Viney and soon-to-depart Western Bulldogs premiership player and three-time All-Australian Jack Macrae.

He went undrafted in his first year of eligibility in 2012, and after three years playing with Box Hill in the VFL, where he was a member of the club leadership group at 19 and played in the 2014-15 VFL grand final, he was picked up at age 21 by the Dockers with pick #55 in the 2015 National Draft.

It was the draft in which the SUNS took Callum AhChee (now at Brisbane) at #8, Brayden Fiorini at #20, Josh Schoenfeld at #34, Mackenzie Willis at #52, Darcy Macpherson at rookie #21 and Jesse Joyce at rookie #67.

Collins went ahead of #56 Jordan Dawson, a 131-gamer chosen by Sydney and now the Adelaide Crows captain, #58 Tom Phillips, a 115-gamer at Collingwood and Hawthorn, and #67 Nathan Broad, a 148-game triple premiership defender at Richmond.

Plus, he was preferred to six notable rookies – Sydney 148-gamer Tom Papley (R#14), retired Essendon 133-gamer Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (R#22), retired GWS 101-gamer turned Brisbane assistant-coach Daniel Lloyd (R#26), 83-game journeyman Mabior Chol, who was rookie pick #30 to Richmond before joining Gold Coast and is now at Hawthorn, 168-game Port dual All-Australian Dan Houston (R#45), and recently-retired basketball convert and rookie pick #48 Hugh Greenwood, who split his 121 AFL games between Adelaide, Gold Coast and North.

Collins joined a Fremantle side which, after losing the 2013 grand final to Hawthorn and finishing 4^th in 2014, had been minor premiers in 2015 only to fall to eventual premiers Hawthorn in the preliminary final.

In his first listing in the AFL Guide in 2016 he was described as “a competitive defender with excellent closing speed and endurance (who) reads the play well and is a good intercept mark”.

Wearing jumper #40, which had been worn most often at Fremantle by tagger turned AFL Commissioner Matt DeBoer, he watched the Dockers lose the first nine games.

But after a 38-point home loss to 14^th-placed Richmond in Round 9 compounded by a hefty injury toll he got his chance.

He debuted in Round 10 at Marvel Stadium against 13^th-placed StKilda, Lyon’s former club. After leading by 14 points at three-quarter time, the Dockers conceded 8-2 to 0-3 in the last quarter to lose by 34 points. Collins had 12 possessions, seven marks, five 1%ers and played 97% game time, but it was 10 losses in a row.

Things turned quickly. In his second game against 17^th-placed Essendon at Subiaco Fremantle won by 79 points to climb to 16^th on the ladder and Collins had 24 possessions – a mark which 125 games later is still a career-high.

Enjoying 92% game time, he also had a game-high 10 contested possessions and a game-high nine 1%ers, and for the first time he had a crack at the club song …. “Freo, way to go, we are the Freo Dockers.”

They beat 17^th-placed Brisbane by 83 points at the Gabba and, three days after his 22^nd birthday, knocked off ninth-placed Port Adelaide at Subiaco by 17 points. In a flash Collins was 3-1.

But they lost the next eight, and in Round 23 he was left out of the side reportedly so he could meet the qualifications to play with Peel Thunder, the Dockers’ WAFL affiliate, in the finals.

It didn’t seem such a good idea when Fremantle closed the AFL season with a 23-point win over the Western Bulldogs, the eventual premiers, in the farewell game for Dockers legend Matthew Pavlich. But when Collins played a key role as the Thunder came from fourth to win their first WAFL flag it wasn’t so bad.

So on to year two, when the 2017 AFL Guide noted his “good first season at AFL level” despite “some tough assignments”.

Fremantle had had what history says was a blockbuster summer, picking up Griffin Logue at #8, Sean Darcy at #38, Brennan Cox at #41 and Luke Ryan at #66 in the draft after trading in 2013-14-15 Hawthorn premiership wingman Brad Hill, 2016 Dogs premiership defender Joel Hamling, and highly-rated forward Cam McCarthy, a first-round draft pick to GWS.

Against early expectations, Collins started the season in the WAFL. And there he stayed as the Dockers went 6-5 to sit eighth on the ladder (although equal fifth on premiership points) at Round 11.

In Round 12 he was recalled for a Gabba meeting with Brisbane, but after a 57-point loss in what was Ryan’s second game and Cox’s debut, he was left out when next they played in Round 14.

It wasn’t until Round 23, after the Dockers had slumped to 14^th at 8-13, that Collins got another chance. It came at Marvel against an Essendon side that went into the last round one of four sides on 44 premiership points. The Bombers won by 15 points.

Collins enjoyed another WAFL flag with Peel Thunder, won the B&F  in the premiership side, and was chosen in the WAFL Team of the Year … and was delisted in what The West Australian noted on 15 October was “a move which shocked those who had watched his work at Peel”.

Noting at the time that coach Lyon had preferred veteran Johnson, recruit Hamling and first-round pick Logue for the key defensive roles moving forward, Collins said “they just felt I wasn’t going to get the opportunity and they essentially had too many backs so I was out the door”.

He was delisted with Zac Clarke, Jonathan Griffin, Nick Suban, Matt Uebergang and Shane Yarran as SUNS Academy graduate Lachie Weller was traded to Gold Coast, Harley Balic was traded to Melbourne and Hayden Crozier was traded to the Western Bulldogs. Zac Dawson retired with Josh Deluca, who later played six games with Carlton.

Much to the surprise of WA onlookers, Collins was overlooked in the 2017 AFL Draft. He went home to Melbourne and joined VFL club Werribee to start again, saying “I worked really hard to get a gig two years ago and I’m not ready to let that go”.

Werribee finished 11^th in the 15-team competition in 2018 with a 7-11 record but Collins finished equal third in the Liston Trophy for the League’s best & fairest, was named at centre half back in the VFL Team of the Year, and won the Werribee B&F.

Unbeknown to him at the time, his recall to the AFL had been sealed on Sunday 24 June 2018 after the SUNS had played Hawthorn in Launceston the day before. Instead of flying home coach Stuart Dew and offsider Dean Solomon travelled to Frankston Oval to watch a player List Manager Craig Cameron was keen on … Collins.

As Solomon later recounted, it took all of 20 minutes for them to be convinced Collins was a ‘must get’ after the loss of Steven May to Melbourne and the continued absence of knee reconstruction victim Rory Thompson.

“Stuey and I went down to Frankston to take a look at him. We knew he was quite good at intercept marking and his defensive work, but within 20 minutes we looked at each other and just nodded,” Solomon said.

“We could just hear his voice the whole time, and what he was saying was really constructive. He sees what’s unfolding quickly and helps set up. I think that’s a real asset to have.

“If you look at the really good successful sides over a long period of time, they have always had those guys who are really smart down back but can also verbalise it. Sam is just like that.

“He has the ability to see it and then be very vocal to direct others. It is very critical for us and comforting for a young midfield to have someone in defence barking at you from behind.”

There was still the question of ‘how?’ but when in grand final week the AFL announced a draft assistance package for the SUNS everything fell into place. They had the right to pre-list three players who had previously been listed with an AFL club, or who had previously nominated for or been eligible for the AFL draft. So Collins headed north with Werribee teammate Josh Corbett and West Adelaide’s Chris Burgess.

Corbett would go on to play 36 games for the SUNS from 2019-22. He switched to Fremantle last year but after five games in his first season purple was ruled out for the entire 202 season by major hip surgery last November. Burgess also played 36 games for the SUNS from 2019-23 before moving to Adelaide, where this year he’s played Rounds 1-2-3-4-12-13-14 with the Crows.

Every day since Collins has continued to stamp himself as one of the AFL’s best ‘second chance’ stories this century as the final chapters of the Fremantle experience have played out.

Of the players traded by the Dockers in 2017, Weller has played 95 games and had two knee reconstructions at the SUNS, Crozier played 73 games, including two finals, with the Dogs, and Balic retired in August 2018 without playing a senior game with the Demons.

Of the players retained at Fremantle seven have since played 100 games – Luke Ryan (144), Michael Walters (128), the now retired David Mundy (104), Nat Fyfe (102), Sean Darcy (102), current captain Alex Pearce (101) and Brennan Cox (101).

So only Ryan and Walters have played more games than Collins in the same time-frame .. and Collins had one year out of the AFL.

Three others have played more than 50 Dockers games – Ethan Hughes and Matt Taberner played 83 and 72 respectively before being delisted this week, and Griffin Logue 51 from 2019-22 before moving to North Melbourne, where he’s added 17 games.

Darcy Tucker played 77 games at Fremantle from 2018-22 before his move to North, where he’s played 41 games in 2023-24, and Ed Langdon played 43 games at Fremantle before moving to Melbourne, where he’s added 111 games.

Lachie Neale played 22 games at Fremantle in 2018 before moving to Brisbane, where he’s played 134 games and won two Brownlow Medals, and Brad Hill played 32 games at Fremantle in 2018-19 before another move to St.Kilda, which has delivered 106 games for the Saints.

Joel Hamling played 46 games with the Dockers from 2018-23 before a 2024 move to Sydney, where he has not broken into the top side, Tom Sheridan played 13 games in 2018 before a move to GWS, where he played two games in 2019-20, and Cam Sutcliffe added four games at Fremantle in 2018 shifting to Port Adelaide for nine games in 2019-20.

Fifteen other players retained ahead of Collins added a combined 228 games in purple – Michael Apeness (5), Haydn Ballantyne (20), Connor Blakely (45), Taylor Duman (45), Brady Grey (4), Stephen Hill (28), Michael Johnson (13), Shane Kersten (9), Cam McCarthy (30), Ryan Nyhuis (13), Danyle Pearce (3) and Aaron Sandilands (13).

Queenslander Lee Spurr didn’t play again and retired in August 2018, ex-Sun Harley Bennell never played for the Dockers again, quit the club in June 2019 and later played five games with Melbourne in 2020, and Luke Strnadica never played for Fremantle but did play two games for West Coast as a Covid top-up in 2022.

And only six players from Collins’ time at Fremantle are still there – Cox, Darcy, Fyfe, Pearce, Ryan and Walters.

With the exit of Sam Day (31) and Brandon Ellis (30), Collins is the SUNS’ fifth- oldest player behind Levi Casboult (34), Witts and Swallow (31) and Alex Sexton (30). But after a belated start to his AFL career and a 12-month ‘sabbatical’  at the hands of coach Lyon, who is now two years into his second stint at St.Kilda, retirement isn’t in the Collins vocabulary.

So now, having claimed his second SUNS B&F award and his fifth consecutive top five finish, he will wait to see if any other players can make it five top fives in a row.

Going into season 2024 there were only 12 others who had banked four top-five finishes in a row, and already four of them are out of contention.

Tom Mitchell had finished 2^nd-1^st at Hawthorn in 2020-21 and 5^th-4^th at Collingwood in 2022-23 but only played six games in 2024. Melbourne’s Christian Petracca was on a 1^st-2^nd-2^nd-1^st run before he fell foul of injury in Round 13. Sydney’s Luke Parker didn’t play until Round 18 this year after having gone 2^nd-1^st-4^th-4^th in the B&F in the last four years, and Essendon’s Jordan Ridley only played nine games after a 1^st-5^th-5^th-5^th run.

So the eight challengers to the ‘Collins Crown’, with their B&F record from 2020-23, are:-

Adelaide – Rory Laird – 2^nd-1^st-1^st-2^nd.
Brisbane – Hugh McCluggage – 3^rd-2^nd-2^nd-3^rd
Collingwood – Scott Pendlebury – 2^nd-3^rd-2^nd-5^th
Essendon – Zach Merrett – 2^nd-1^st-2^nd-1^st
Fremantle – Andrew Brayshaw – 3^rd-3^rd-1^st-2^nd
Richmond – Shai Bolton – 4^th-4^th-4^th-3^rd
W/Bulldogs – Marcus Bontempelli – 2^nd-1^st-4^th-1^st
W/Bulldogs – Tom Liberatore – 3^rd-3^rd-2^nd-2^nd