Campbell’s #16 jumper has been worn by 52 different Swans players – more than any other – since the introduction of player numbers in 1912.
And when the 22-year-old left-footer runs out for his first milestone game against premiers Collingwood on Friday night he will become the eighth Swan to play 50 games in #16.
Most significantly for the homegrown product of Pennant Hills via the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, he will follow in the footsteps of the club’s first coach after the 1982 move to Sydney, Ricky Quade.
Quade, Swans club champion in 1976 and captain from 1977-79, holds the record for most games in jumper #16 for the Swans at 164.
He filled a variety of key roles with the club after ill-health forced him to step down from coaching duties 13 games into the 1984 season.
Now 73, Quade still retains close links to the club and will be delighted to see Campbell become the first Sydney-bred player to reach 50 games in his beloved #16.
Seven other 50-game #16’s have played a variety of key roles in Swans history.
Darren Jolly, second on the #16 games list, wore #16 in the 2005 grand final win in a 118-game stint with the Swans from 2005-09 after 48 games at Melbourne (2001-04) and before 71 games and another flag at Collingwood (2010-13).
Gary Rohan, now at Geelong, played 106 games in the #16 Swans jumper, including the 2014-16 grand finals.
The first Swan to play 100 games in #16 was the senior member of one of the great Swans families – Austin Robertson Snr.
Born and bred in South Melbourne, he played 154 games in red and white from 1927-37 – 105 games in #16 after he spent his first four years and 49 games in #30.
Known for his prodigious place-kicking, he was a member of the 1935-36 grand final sides, was South Melbourne’s leading goal-kicker in 1929-31 and is 15th on the club’s all-time goal list.
He also won the 1930 world professional sprint championship and served as a corporal in the Australian Army in World War II.
Robertson’s older brother Harold, who played 64 games from 1917-23, held the club record for most goals in a game at 14 from 1919-34, and son Austin Jnr is an AFL Hall of Famer, having been a superstar at Subiaco in the WAFL either side of one season at South Melbourne in 1966.
Wingman David Bolton played 95 games in #16 for the Swans from 1986-91 after moving from Geelong, and half back flanker Kevin Hilet played 56 games in #16 from 1950-54 after nine games in #13.
Ron Hartridge, a key forward who was a product of South Melbourne Technical College, played 50 games with South from 1943-46, after 11 games at St Kilda from 1938-40.
He was the club’s leading goal-kicker in 1944-45, but in ’45 had the odd experience of playing all 20 home-and-away games and the semi-final before being relegated to the reserves bench for the grand final loss to Carlton.
The other Swans player to wear #16 in a premiership was Tammy Hynes in 1918. But after 28 games in #16 in 1918-19 he switched to #10 in 1920 and #25 in 1922-24.
