Sydney Swans stalwart Luke Parker will join the ‘Thirty-Something Club’ this week, coming off an ‘audition’ better than most in AFL history.
Parker, who celebrated his 30th birthday on October 25 last year, has missed just 17 games in 12 years in the AFL – and only one in the last seven years – and sits equal 11th on the all-time games list prior to the big milestone birthday.
The 260-game co-captain, fourth on the all-time Swans possession list with 6114 behind Josh Kennedy (7137), Adam Goodes (6390) and Jarrad McVeigh (6264), will rank equal 12th across the entire AFL for possessions pre-30.
Having debuted on May 14, 2011, Parker was dropped twice and played just five games in his first season but hasn’t been out of the Swans side on merit since then.
Equal seventh on the club’s all-time games list with John Rantall and poised to go ahead of Rantall and recently-retired ex-skipper Josh Kennedy (277) this season, Parker missed seven games with a shoulder injury in 2012, five with an ankle in 2015 and one with a groin in 2018.
His ‘live’ streak of 88 games ranks sixth among current players behind only Collingwood’s Jack Crisp (188), North’s Todd Goldstein (109), Melbourne’s Christian Petracca (107), Western Bulldogs Jack Macrae (97) and Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron (92).
Parker, a one-time junior basketball star from Langwarrin on Melbourne’s south-east outskirts, was drafted by the Swans with pick #40 in 2010 – the draft which was the primary set-up draft for the Gold Coast Suns.
The could-have-been Sun has been the bargain pick-up of his draft, ranking 1st in games and Brownlow Medal votes among 2010 draftees, second in possessions behind West Coast’s Andrew Gaff, who was drafted at pick #4, and seventh in goals.
Parker’s 260 games prior to his 30th birthday, eight more than second-ranked Swan Adam Goodes, is only 19 games behind the League record of 279. The top 20, of which Richmond’s Dustin Martin is the only other current player, is:
279 - Simon Madden (Ess)
277 – Russell Greene (StK/Haw)
274 – Ben Hart (Adel)
273 – Chris Grant (WB), Mark Riccuito (Adel), Tim Watson (Ess)
270 – Nathan Burke (StK)
269 – Brad Johnson (WB)
267 – Marcus Ashcroft (Bris)
265 – Adem Yze (Melb)
260 – Gary Ablett Jr (Geel/GC), Nick Dal Santo (StK/NM), Michael Voss (Bris), Luke Parker (Syd)
258 – Joel Selwood (Geel), Shannon Grant (Syd/NM), Robert Walls (Carl/Fitz)
257 – Chris Judd (WC/Carl), Nigel Lappin (Bris), Dustin Martin (Rich).
Martin, who played only nine of a possible 23 games last season, can potentially play 14 games before his 30th birthday on 26th June to jump to outright fifth on the list.
Other current players above 240 games before their 30th birthday are Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury (252), Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield (249), Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt (249), Sydney’s Lance Franklin (247), Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom (243) and West Coast’s Andrew Gaff (243).
Sixteen Swans players have topped 200 games before their 30th birthday. They are:
260 – Luke Parker
252 – Adam Goodes
247 – Michael O’Loughlin
244 – Jarrad McVeigh
233 – Jude Bolton
229 – Tony Morwood #
221 – Mark Bayes
218 – Kieren Jack
210 – Mark Browning
209 – Ryan O’Keefe
208 – Dan Hannebery #
205 – David McLeish
204 – Josh Kennedy ###
203 – Leo Barry, Nick Smith
202 – Jared Crouch
200 – Jake Lloyd ##
# Morwood and Hannebery finished their Swans career before their 30th birthday,
## Lloyd will not turn 30 until 20 September this year.
### Kennedy also played 13 games for Hawthorn pre-30.
Parker is one of just 12 players across the entire AFL competition to have topped 6000 possessions before turning 30. The list, which began when statistics were first kept in 1965, is:
6664 – Scott Pendlebury (Coll)
6642 – Robert Harvey (StK)
6615 – Joel Selwood (Geel)
6453 – Gary Ablett Jr (Geel/GC)
6440 – Andrew Gaff (WC)
6400 – Dustin Martin (Rich)
6244 – Scott West (WB)
6114 – Luke Parker (Syd)
6091 – Scott Thompson (Melb/Adel)
6053 – Garry Wilson (Fitz)
6021 – Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel)
6011 – Jack Macrae (WB)
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