Matt Rowell had a start to AFL football that quite possibly has never been seen before, polling three Brownlow Medal votes in each of his second, third and fourth games.
But as the midfield powerhouse celebrates his 24th birthday today, ahead of his 100th AFL game against Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Saturday afternoon, his Brownlow blitzkrieg of five years ago is not even the most memorable feature of his early days in the league.
In a story that will be recounted countless times in the years ahead, Rowell was 84 days between his first game and his second game in 2020 when a world-wide Covid pandemic hit Australia and turned not only his fledgling football career on its head, but everyday life.
The 2020 AFL season opener on Thursday, March 19 was only confirmed 24 hours before the first bounce, and as the last two games of Round 1 were played on the Sunday, the league announced a complete shutdown for what would be almost three months.
It wasn’t anything like that Rowell might have dreamed of when he was drafted by the SUNS with pick 1 in the 2019 National Draft, or what he might have expected when, before the shutdown was announced, he pulled on the #18 SUNS jumper for his AFL debut against Port Adelaide at People First Stadium in Round 1.
He had 19 possessions (11 contested), four tackles and four clearances in a 47-point SUNS loss, playing 78% of game time after all games were reduced by 20% in length and immediately went into lockdown.
It’s all part of a journey that began when Rowell, born in Sydney to a Victorian mother and a Queensland father but a ‘Melbournite’ from his early days, was drafted at pick 1 ahead of Oakleigh Chargers teammate and now SUNS captain Noah Anderson.
The long-time best mates, who also went to school together at Melbourne’s Carey Grammar, were preferred in the draft to East Fremantle’s Luke Jackson, who went to Melbourne at #3 before GWS chose the Murray Bushrangers Lachie Ash at #4, Sydney took Norwood’s Dylan Stephens at #5 and Adelaide went with the Sandringham Dragons’ Fischer McAsey at #6.
Fremantle, with picks 7-9, chose the Dandenong Stingrays Hayden Young, Gippsland Power’s Caleb Serong and Claremont’s Liam Henry, GWS took the Canberra Demons’ Tom Green at #11 the SUNS chose Gippsland Power’s Sam Flanders.
Only eight of 93 first-time draftees from the Class of 2019 debuted in Round 1 – Rowell, Anderson and SUNS rookie pick Connor Budarick, McAsey, Green, Melbourne pick #12 Kysaiah Pickett, Port pick #18 Mitch Georgiades and Brisbane pick #22 Deven Robertson.
Statistically, Rowell was the pick of them. Pickett and Georgiades kicked two goals, Anderson had 12 possessions without a tackle or a clearance, Budarick eight possessions and three tackles, Robertson seven possessions and three tackles, Green six possessions, two tackles and two clearances, and McAsey five possessions.
But it was all very much secondary. Queensland was already nearly two months into a public health emergency that had been called on 29 January, as the public was introduced to an entirely new concept called ‘social distancing.’
From March 26, five days after Rowell’s AFL debut, staggered restrictions were introduced. People were ordered not to leave their principal place of residence except for essential needs, including work, food, medical and exercise, as non-essential business and activities were cancelled, and the Queensland borders were closed.
It stayed that way for six weeks until, on May 15 as most states started to ease restrictions, the League announced the resumption of non-contact training from May 18. Full training would be permitted from May 25 ahead of the resumption of matches in a reduced 17-game home-and-away season on June 11.
But just as nobody could have predicted the Covid chaos that would follow Round 1, there was nothing to suggest what Rowell would do when the league resumed in Round 2.
The SUNS were drawn to host West Coast, Adelaide and Fremantle, and in three wins by a total of 110 points he had 66 possessions (37 contested), six goals, 23 tackles and 15 clearances, and polled nine Brownlow votes.
AFL records aren’t so detailed as to identify anything comparable, but what is definite is that among the 116 players in AFL history who have polled more than 100 Brownlow Medal votes, it did not happen.
The closest thing to Rowell’s 3-3-3 blitz in games 2-3-4 was Nathan Buckley’s effort in his first season with the Brisbane Bears in 1993.
Having won the SANFL’s Magarey Medal as a 20-year-old in 1992, Buckley polled consecutive three-vote games in games six, seven and eight against Fitzroy, Hawthorn and Sydney. Playing full-length games he had 86 possessions, kicked three goals and made two tackles in an era before the introduction of more detailed statistics.
Paul Salmon, a 324-game forward/ruck with Essendon and Hawthorn from 1983-2002 and a member of the Hawthorn Team of the Century, polled 3-3-3 in games 10, 11 and 12 when he kicked 7-7-8 goals at the start of his second season. He was 19.
Current Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, who debuted at 18 in 2014, polled three votes in his eighth game in his first season, and three more in his 17th and 18th games to begin 2015.
But even the incomparable Gary Ablett Jnr was 12 games at the SUNS before he picked up his third three-voter in red and yellow after having had to wait until games 63, 91 and 106 at Geelong for the first three best afield ratings of his career.
Overall, 22 players among the 100-Vote Club polled three votes three times inside their first 50 games. Listed in increasing order on their third three-vote game, they are:
Matt Rowell (GC) – 2-3-4
Nathan Buckley (Bris) – 6-7-8
Paul Salmon (Ess) – 10-11-12
Marcus Bontempelli (WB) – 8-17-18
Peter Matera (WC) – 6-20-21
John Platten (Haw) - 12-13-22
Matt Priddis (WC) – 8-12-23
Simon Black (Bris) – 18-21-23
Dan Hannebery (Syd) – 10-15-25
Greg Williams (Geel) – 1-15-28
Gavin Wanganeen (Ess) – 8-11-28
Patrick Cripps (Carl) – 12-24-30
Craig Bradley (Carl) – 3-4-32
Tony Liberatore (WB) – 23-24-32
Joel Selwood (Geel) – 27-32-35
Nick Dal Santo (StK) – 24-30-36
Jimmy Bartel (Geel) – 5-32-37
Rory Sloane (Adel) – 30-37-39
Clayton Oliver (Melb) – 14-31-42
Jack Macrae (WB) – 16-29-43
Shane Crawford (Haw) – 2-43-46
Robert Harvey (StK) – 33-41-46
Max Gawn (Melb) – 29-44-46
Ben Cousins (WC) – 9-46-47
Jim Stynes (Melb) – 14-43-48
Dustin Martin (Rich) – 26-33-48
Chris Judd (WC) – 37-46-49
Lachie Neale (Bris) – 29-44-49
Tom Mitchell (Syd) – 22-35-49
Jason Dunstall (Haw) – 41-46-50
Matthew Knights (Rich) – 12-47-50
Just as Rowell’s AFL career started with a blast it turned sour quickly when, early in his fifth game, he suffered a shoulder injury that ended his first season. Then, early in his sixth game in Round 1, 2021, he copped a knee injury that saw him miss the next 10 weeks.
But since his seventh game in Round 13, 2021 he’s played 93 consecutive games for the seventh-longest ‘live’ streak in the league behind Collingwood’s all-time AFL record-holder Jack Crisp (252), St Kilda’s Callum Wilkie (147), Adelaide’s Ben Keays (121), Port’s Willem Drew (111), Western Bulldogs’ Bailey Dale (111) and Fremantle’s Luke Ryan (98).
Sam Collins and Daniel Rioli are equal 9th on the ‘live’ list at 90 games, with Noah Anderson next best among the SUNS at 74.
Rowell, fresh from signing a two-year contract extension that ties him to the club until the end of 2027, will be the 10th member of the AFL Class of 2019 to play 100 games after Pickett (118) and Serong (118), Anderson (117), Geelong rookie pick #12 Brad Close (116), Ash (116) and Melbourne pick #32 Trent Rivers (115).
Jackson, now at Fremantle, is seventh at 110 games, ahead of Green (106) and Sydney pick #39 Chad Warner, who played his 100th game last weekend.
Averaging 20.6 possessions, 12.73 contested possessions, 7.32 tackles and 6.55 clearances, Rowell is ranked #5 among this group for possessions and is #1 for tackles (easily) and clearances.
He’s #2 for contested possessions, just behind Green at 13.10, but has the highest percentage of contested possessions (61.7%) – up on Jackson (55.0%) and Green (48.4%).
And despite a 43.0% career win ratio, better only than Anderson’s 37.5% among this group, to the end of 2024 and the last Brownlow Medal vote-count, Rowell had averaged 0.58 votes per game – fewer only than Warner (0.67), Serong (0.62) and Green (0.62) and just more than Anderson (0.56).
Rowell will become the SUNS 27th 100-gamer and will put the club one up on the equivalent number at the GWS Giants, who have 26 100-gamers.
He’ll be the sixth-youngest SUNS 100-gamer, older only than Charlie Ballard, Tom Lynch, Jack Lukosius, Touk Miller and Noah Anderson, and will be the sixth SUN with more than 2000 possessions at this milestone.
Gary Ablett Jnr is a runaway leader with 3025 possessions in his first 100 games in red and yellow, while Anderson (2449) is a clear second. Rowell, with 2041 possessions in 99 games, is within striking distance of Miller (2063) and Brayden Fiorini (2069), but it would take more than his career-best of 36 possessions to go past third-ranked David Swallow (2082).
Only the third player to wear the SUNS #18 jumper after Trent McKenzie (106 games) and Brad Scheer (13 games), Rowell will be the third SUNS player after Ablett and Anderson to get to 100 games with more than 50 Brownlow Medal votes in his ‘locker’ and will be the ‘winningest’ SUNS 100-gamer.
Already with 45 wins in 99 games, the bulldozing redhead is ahead of Sam Collins (40), Wil Powell (38), Anderson (37) and Ben King (36).
And in Round 20, when the SUNS host the Brisbane Lions in QClash 29, Rowell and Anderson are on track to celebrate a shared milestone – 100 games as teammates.
