The Gold Coast SUNS this weekend will add a 23^rd playing venue to a 15-year travel schedule that has seen the club fly more than 620,000km in 154 trips. Or 15.5 times around the globe at the equator.

SUNS venue #23 and the 51^st in overall AFL history will be Barossa Park, formerly known as Lyndoch Recreation Park and located 58km north-east of Adelaide, between Gawler and Tanunda.

One of the oldest towns in South Australia, it had a recorded population of 1883 in the most recent census in 2021.

So small is Lyndoch that if you Google search for famous people from there you get ‘none’.

These days it is primarily a service centre for the surrounding grape and wine industry and a dormitory town with a significant number of local residents commuting to Adelaide.

Not this weekend. Instead, a site known previously as Lyndon Recreation Park which 12 months ago was little more than grass, goal posts, battered old changing rooms and a small canteen, will host 10,000 people twice in AFL Gather Round #3.

The Gold Coast and North Melbourne will christen the venue at 12.35pm Saturday, before Richmond and Fremantle meet at the same time on Sunday.

The venue, increased from its normal capacity of 5000 by the temporary Gather Round seating, was identified as a future AFL venue in April last year by the SA Government to promote tourism in the Barossa Valley.

It has undergone a $45 million transformation which has included a complete upgrade of the oval, construction of a recreation green/second oval to support the relocation of athletics, and a new multi-purpose building comprising a 300-seat event space, commercial kitchen, clubroom, change facilities and gym.

It also includes new netball courts, a playground and family garden, shelters and landscaping, and is home to the Barossa Bulldogs, formed in 1979 via the merger of the Lyndoch Football Club and the Williamstown Rovers Football Club.

The Bulldogs plays in the Barossa Light & Gawler Football Association, which among its AFL products are 333-game West Coast premiership captain and games record-holder Shannon Hurn, Port Adelaide 280-gamer Justin Westhoff, who is third on the Power games list, West Coast 166-gamer and 2006 premiership player Sam Butler, and 63-game GWS/Essendon/West Coast ruckman Jonathan Giles.

Barossa Park will be the third venue at which the SUNS have played the first official AFL match after they christened Jiangwan Stadium in China in 2017, and Riverway Stadium in Townsville in 2019.

Oddly, it will be the fifth different playing venue in South Australia after Football Park (4 games), Adelaide Oval (11) and 2023-24 Gather Round venues at Norwood Oval (1) and Mt. Barker (1).

In what is a challenging trivia question, other centres to host the SUNS in official matches, with their match count, have been:

Queensland – People First Stadium (134), Gabba (20), Cairns (8), Townsville (1).
Victoria – Marvel Stadium (37), MCG (19), Geelong (9), Ballarat (4).
WA – Subiaco (10), Perth Stadium (10).
NSW – SCG (10), Sydney Showgrounds (7).
TAS – Launceston (6), Hobart (2)
NT – Darwin (8), Alice Springs (1).
ACT – Canberra (1).

With a win percentage of 40.3% at PFS, the SUNS have their best win rate in Darwin at 75.0%, with six wins from eight visits ahead of upcoming games against Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn in Rounds 9-10 this year.

SUNS win records at other grounds are SCG (40.0%), Cairns (37.5%), MCG (31.6%), Perth Stadium (30%), Marvel Stadium (27.0%), Canberra, Ballarat and Football Park (25.0%), the Gabba (15%) and Subiaco (10%).

Remarkably, although Swallow will miss this weekend’s trip to Barossa Park through injury, he has played at every one of the other 22 venues that have hosted the SUNS.

Touk Miller (20) and Alex Sexton (20) are next, from Jarrod Witts, Nick Holman, Jarrod Harbrow, Sean Lemmens (19), Charlie Ballard, Ben Ainsworth, Brayden Fiorini and Sam Day (18) and Michael Rischitelli, Tom Lynch, Rory Thompson, Jack Lukosius, Jack Martin and Darcy Macpherson (17).

Current players closing on this group are Sam Collins (16), Wil Powell (16), Noah Anderson (16), Lachie Weller (16), Ben King (16) and Matt Rowell (16).

Swallow heads 12 players who have played 50-plus games for the SUNS at People First Stadium:

102 – David Swallow
88 – Jarrod Harbrow
83 – Touk Miller
74 – Alex Sexton
68 – Sam Day
67 – Sean Lemmens
62 – Michael Rischitelli, Jarrod Witts
61 – Tom Lynch
56 – Ben Ainsworth
55 – Steven May
53 – Charlie Ballard
50 – Nick Holman, Rory Thompson

The former skipper also holds outright the SUNS record at six other grounds, and shares it at six more – including four at which the club has only played once.

Jarrod Harbrow has a share of six club records, including the coveted MCG and Cazaly’s Stadium in his home town of Cairns.

The SUNS games-record-holder at each other venue is:

Adelaide Oval – David Swallow (10)
Bellerive Oval (Hobart) – Ben Ainsworth, Noah Anderson, Charlie Ballard, Brandon Ellis, ,Brayden Fiorini, Sam Flanders, Sean Lemmens, Oleg Markov, Touk Miller, Matt Rowell, Alex Sexton (2).
Cazaly’s Stadium (Cairns) – Jarrod Harbrow (8)
Football Park – Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow, Trent McKenzie, Danny Stanley (4)
Marvel Stadium – David Swallow (32)
MARS Stadium (Ballarat) – Ben Ainsworth, Nick Holman, Touk Miller, David Swallow (4)
Gabba – David Swallow (17)
Jiangwan Stadium (China) – Jack Bowes, Aaron Hall, Jarrod Harbrow, Jack Leslie, Jarryd Lyons, Steven May, Touk Miller, Brad Scheer, Alex Sexton, Jarrod Witts (2)
Kardinia Park (Geelong) – David Swallow (7)
MCG – Jarrod Harbrow (12)
Manuka Oval (Canberra) – David Swallow (4)
Marrara Oval (Darwin) – Ben Ainsworth, Noah Anderson, Charlie Ballard, Sam Collins (7)
Mt.Barker – 23 players shared
Norwood Oval – 23 players shared
Perth Stadium - Alex Sexton, David Swallow, Jarrod Witts (9)
Riverway Stadium (Townsville) - 23 players shared
SCG – Touk Miller (9)
Subiaco Oval – Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow, Trent McKenzie (9)
Sydney Showgrounds – Alex Sexton, David Swallow (6)
Traeger Park (Alice Springs) – 22 players shared
York Park (Launceston) – Jarrod Harbrow, Tom Lynch, Michael Rischitelli (5)