Sam Collins and Ben King will write themselves into the AFL record books at Darwin’s Marrara Oval when the SUNS play StKilda there on Saturday night.
Collins will play his 11th game at Marrara to go one ahead of the record he now shares with ex-Port Adelaide tagger Kane Cornes and ex-Port/Fremantle utility Danyle Pearce.
And with one goal against the Saints King will take the outright Marrara goals record which he currently shares with ex-Western Bulldogs champion Brad Johnson at 17, two more than ex-Sun Jack Lukosius.
Also, SUNS captain Noah Anderson will ‘defend’ the all-time record for most possessions in a game at Marrara, having had 42 against Geelong in 2024.
And Bailey Humphrey will take on the Saints as one of seven players – including SUNS assistant-coach Brad Miller - who share the record for most goals in a game at Marrara at five.
Lukosius kicked five goals at Marrara there times while Miller did so playing for Melbourne against Port Adelaide in 2010. It was a career-best.
Humphrey bagged five in the same 2024 game against Geelong as Anderson had his 42 possessions to sit with Lukosius, Johnson, West Coast’s Jack Darling (now at North), Port’s Paul Stewart and Carlton’s Brendon Fevola at the top of the list.
The SUNS, with an 8-2 record in 10 games at Marrara, will play their 11th game to join the Bulldogs with most games at Marrara, which has hosted 30 games in total since 2004.
Having played two games a year in Darwin every year since 2022 after one each in 2012 and 2020, the SUNS also have posted most wins in the NT capital – one more than the 7-4 Bulldogs.
And that’s after they lost their first two games in the NT capital – to the Dogs in 2012 and Carlton in 2020. Since then they’ve beaten the Dogs, North and Hawthorn twice, and Adelaide and Geelong once without a blemish.
Matt Rowell, already ruled unfit this week, has an extraordinary record at Marrara. He’s polled 14 Brownlow Medal votes in eight games which have delivered an 8-0 record.
Touk Miller has polled 10 Brownlow votes at Marrara in a 6-1 win/loss split, and Anderson six votes in an 8-1 split. Lachie Weller has two votes in a 2-2 split, and John Noble, unbeaten in two visits to the NT capital with the SUNS last year, has two votes and a career-best 36 possessions against Hawthorn.
Fittingly, Joel Jeffrey, born and raised in Darwin shares Rowell’s 8-0 club best record in Darwin, and Ben Long, another Territorian, is 6-0 with Alex Davies and Humphrey.
SUNS players set for their first game at Marrara this week are Oscar Adams, Ethan Read, Lachy Gulbin, Leo Lombard and Zeke Uwland (if selected).
Sitting fifth on the AFL ladder with a 5-3 record and a percentage of 116.0%, the SUNS will face a Saints line-up that is ninth at 4-4 with a percentage of 114.9%.
They’ve gone LLWLWLWW, and have beaten GWS (14th), Port Adelaide (13th), West Coast (15th) and Carlton (16th), and lost to Collingwood (8th), Melbourne (7th), Brisbane (4th) and Adelaide (11th). Their percentage is boosted by a 101-point win over West Coast at Marvel Stadium in Round 7 – their club’s biggest win in 12 years.
Jack Sinclair, averaging 30.0 possessions per game, is the Saints’ #1 ball-winner this year from Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (26.75ppg), Callum Wilkie (25.75), Flanders (23.50), Brad Hill (23.1). Hugo Garcia (20.9) and Darcy Wilson (20.1).
Jack Higgins’ 16 goals puts him at the top of the Saints goal list from Mitch Owens (14), Cooper Sharman (11), Liam Ryan (11), Max Hall (9) and Wanganeen-Milera (7).
Wilkie, sharing the StKilda captaincy this year with Sinclair after the exit of Jack Steele, heads his team’s vote tally in the AFL Coach’s Association Player of the Year Award.
He has 32 votes to sit 10th overall and leads Wanganeen-Milera (22), Sinclair (19), Max Hall (10), and Rowan Marshall (10) among the Saints.
StKilda coach Ross Lyon has a 9-5 record overall against the Gold Coast and is 3-2 against the Gold Coast at St.Kilda. He is 1-2 in Darwin but has never coached StKilda there against Gold Coast and hasn’t coached there at all since 2018.
