Gary Ablett is now the games record holder for possessions at four different AFL grounds. Ablett’s 45 possessions for the Gold Coast SUNS in Saturday’s round 15 loss to Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium in Launceston surpassed the previous best at the venue of 40, set by Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell against West Coast in 2009. Fittingly, Ablett’s record-breaking performance came in the 50th AFL game to be played at Aurora since it was added to the AFL venue list in 2001.

Since moving to the Gold Coast, Ablett has also become the games-record holder at the MCG, where he had a career-best 53 possessions against Collingwood in 2012. This bettered the record at the time of 48 possessions, set by Collingwood’s Dane Swan against Port Adelaide in 2009. Swan subsequently had 49 possessions for Collingwood against Hawthorn in 2012 to now sit second on the MCG list behind Ablett.

Ablett also holds two ground records for possessions as a Geelong player. In 2009 he had a ground record 44 possessions for Geelong against Sydney at Stadium Australia in Sydney, and in 2009 for Geelong against Adelaide he had an equal- ground record 46 possessions at the now unused AAMI Stadium in Adelaide in 1991 to match Barry Mitchell’s 46 for Sydney against Adelaide in 1991.

He boasts seven of the 11 40-possession games recorded at Metricon Stadium, but Ablett only rates second-best all-time at the SUNS’ homeground behind Adelaide’s Scott Thompson.
Thompson had 51 possessions for the Crows against the SUNS in 2011. The closest Ablett has got to this figure was his 49 possessions against Collingwood last year.

Ablett also has Metricon hauls of 43, 42 (three times) and 41. Completing the Metricon 40+ list are SUNS teammate Dion Prestia, who had a career-best 42 possessions against Adelaide at Metricon last year; Terry Wallace, who had 41 possessions for Footscray against the Brisbane Bears in 1991; and David Bain, who had 40 for the Bears against Hawthorn in 1990.

Ablett’s 45 possessions on Saturday - which was his third-biggest haul for the SUNS behind the two aforementioned games against Collingwood in 2012 and 2013 - continued his extraordinary ball-winning run against Hawthorn.

He has now had 30+ possessions 11 times in a row against the traditional AFL powerhouse for Geelong and Gold Coast in a run which started with 34 possessions in the 2008 grand final.
It reads an astonishing 34-35-33-38-32 for the Cats, and 34-43-43-37-35-45 for the SUNS.

The last time the now 30-year-old, 267-game veteran, had fewer than 30 possessions against Hawthorn was when he had 17 disposals at Aurora Stadium in round 17, 2007. He was 22 and it was his 67th game.

Ablett also posted a 2014 SUNS-best 24 contested possessions against the Hawks on Saturday. This bettered his own previous best of 21 against the GWS Giants in round 6, but fell three short of the club record of 27, set by the skipper against Essendon in 2012.

The record-breaking Ablett leather-fest, which also included eight clearances and six tackles, surpassed a rare effort by Tom Lynch in the SUNS’ disappointing loss to the Hawks.
Lynch became just the second Gold Coast player this year to play an entire game without a spell on the interchange bench. The only other player to record 100% ground time this year was Steven May in round 1 against Richmond.

Interestingly, in what seems like a by-product of the new interchange cap introduced by the AFL this year, 100% game time is now a rarity after the Suns had 15 100% games in 2011, 21 in 2012 and seven last year. Matthew Warnock leads the all-time Suns list with nine – all in 2012 when he played every game. Nathan Bock, who had six full games in 2011, is next best overall, followed by Seb Tape (5), Rory Thompson (5), Lynch (3), Sam Day (3), May (2), Maverick Weller (2), Joel Wilkinson (2), Jared Brennan (1), Joey Daye (1), Taylor Hine (1) and Danny Stanley (1).

Warnock has played only five senior games this year but averages the highest ground time percentage at 97%. Others above 90% this year are May (95%), Lynch (94%), Gary Ablett (93%) and Rory Thompson (90%).

In other noteworthy statistical facts to emerge from the SUNS’ visit to Launceston on Saturday:

• David Swallow had a career-best 18 contested possessions. He has 623 all-time for the club to sit 2nd behind Ablett (1162) and ahead of Dion Prestia (572) and Danny Stanley (528)
• David Swallow also had 11 tackles against the Hawks – an equal-SUNS best for 2014. Gary Ablett also had 11 tackles against GWS in round 6. Swallow’s effort saw him jump beyond the 250-barrier all-time and up to 3rd on the club’s all-time list. Ablett (411) leads the way from Dion Prestia (266), Swallow (258) and Michael Rischitelli (255)
• Gary Ablett’s eight clearances against Hawthorn saw him become the first SUNS player to reach 500 all-time. Dion Prestia (252) and David Swallow (223) are next best on the list
• Jesse Lonergan, included for his first AFL game of the season after an injury-disrupted start, joined Kade Kolodjashnij in playing his first AFL game in his home state. Sadly, like two-time visitor Luke Russell, they were unable to celebrate a win with family and friends. Harley Bennell, Greg Broughton, Charlie Dixon, Jack Martin, Steven May, Jaeger O’Meara, Alex Sexton, Zac Smith, David Swallow and Rory Thompson also played their first game at Aurora
• Trent McKenzie and Danny Stanley played their 32nd game in a row to join Aaron Hall in third spot on the list for all-time consecutive games. This is headed by Jaeger O’Meara’s live 36-game streak and the former club record of 34, set by Harley Bennell from 2011-2013.
• Charlie Dixon, with 14 possessions, became the 22nd Suns player to reach 500. And with two goals Dixon climbed to 5th on the all-time goal-kicking list at 46 behind Gary Ablett (96), Harley Bennell (74), Tom Lynch (64) and Brandon Matera (55)
• The SUNS’ final score of 10.3 (63) represented the club’s second best conversion rate in a game. Their 76.9% accuracy has been bettered only by the score of 14.3 (82.4%) against Fremantle at Metricon Stadium in 2012.
• The SUNS’ total of 13 scoring shots was third lowest all-time behind eight scoring shots against Geelong at Simonds Stadium in 2011, when they kicked 6.2 and lost by 150 points, and 12 scoring shots against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium in 2012, when they kicked 7.5 and lost by 92 points.
• And in a statistic not expected to emerge from a 53-point loss, the ‘win’ in the first quarter against Hawthorn, when they outscored the premiers 3.0 to 2.5, saw them equal the club record of four consecutive quarters won. This came after they outscored Geelong in the last three quarters of the round 14 clash at Metricon, and matched the effort in the only two games in which they’ve won all four quarters. This was against GWS at Metricon in the last game of last year, and against Brisbane at Metricon in round 3 this year