If Damien Hardwick sprung a quiz on his playing group at training this week and asked, ‘Among AFL debutants, which current player was quickest to post a 30-possession game for the club?’ he might get an assortment of answers.

Some might say Matt Rowell. He polled three Brownlow Medal votes in his second, third and fourth games. Surely one of them was 30-plus?

Others would go for Noah Anderson. He played every game in his 2020 debut season. Surely he had a 30-possession game.

Or Touk Miller? He played every game in his debut season back in 2015.

Or, thinking maybe it’s a trick question, they’d punt on Bodhi Uwland. He only played three games in his first season in 2023 but was runner-up in the 2024 best and fairest.

But they’d all be wrong.

Because Zeke Uwland upstaged them all on Saturday when, in his 13th AFL game, he had 32 possessions against Collingwood at People First Stadium.

That put him ahead of Rowell and Anderson, who took 18 and 19 games respectively to hit 30, Miller, who took 29 games, and brother Bodhi, who was the ‘red herring’ in the question.

He’s only hit 30 once in his 65-game career, in game No. 59 against Port Adelaide at TIO Stadium in May.

And only one other current player has hit 30. Joel Jeffrey did so in his 32nd game last year.

For extra points, which player, imports aside, has been quickest to register a 30-possession game in SUNS history?

It’s a tough one, with the three quickest players all still in the AFL but at opposition clubs.

Quickest was Brayden Fiorini, who is now on the injured list at Essendon. He had 32 possessions in his second SUNS game.

Jeremy Sharp, now at Fremantle but limited to two games this year, had 30 possessions in his sixth SUNS game.

And Jaeger O’Meara, now at Fremantle after a stint at Hawthorn but also finding senior games hard to come by, had 30 possessions in his 12th SUNS game.

Others to debut with the SUNS and post at least one 30-possession game were Harley Bennell (20 games), Dion Prestia (23), Kade Kolodjashnij (32), Sam Flanders (38), Jack Martin (48), Aaron Hall (59), Jack Bowes (60), David Swallow (61) and Darcy Macpherson (79).

It’s only a number, and in the modern game it’s often misleading, but not in the case of Uwland on Saturday. His 32 possessions, 16 marks, one goal, one clearance and two score involvements represented, very definitely, the best game of his short career.

So good, in fact, that he earned his first votes in the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year Award and received the Round 17 nomination for the AFL Rising Star Award.

The Uwland brothers received four votes each from the coaches in Collingwood’s six-point win to top the Gold Coast vote, while Ned Moyle polled three votes.

And Zeke became the SUNS’ third Rising Star nominee for the year after Leo Lombard (Opening Round) and Jai Murray (Round 15).

Wearing the former No. 32 jumper of his older brother, and nominated in his 13th game as his older brother was, Zeke has crammed 13 months of learning into his brief career. Or more.

He’s shed the ‘boy in a man’s game’ look of early in the season and developed a real confidence with ball in hand despite the SUNS’ five-game losing streak.

It won’t have escaped his attention that, for the first time in his short career, his 32 possessions against the Magpies topped Bodhi’s 28.

Or that, for the first time, he was not the SUNS’ youngest player. It was a mantle he carried from Opening Round against Geelong through to the debut of former Burleigh Bombers junior teammates Murray and Beau Addinsall in recent weeks.

But on Saturday, first-gamer Dylan Patterson was 130 days younger.

Not insignificantly, the SUNS fielded their youngest and least-experienced side of the season against Collingwood, with an average age of 24 years, 200 days and total experience of 2,056 games.