Hidden in the disappointment of the SUNS' six-point home loss to Collingwood on Saturday was a significant career moment for Ben King. And a quirky numeric fact.
With three goals against the Magpies in his 136th game, King became the 208th player in AFL history and the 70th quickest to 300 goals.
More significantly, the SUNS spearhead and all-time leading goal-kicker was the seventh-quickest to 300 this century, behind only Matthew Lloyd, Lance Franklin, Scott Cummings, Brendan Fevola, Jeremy Cameron and Mark LeCras.
Lloyd was the quickest of this group at 93 games, ahead of Franklin (101), Cummings (105), Fevola (117), Cameron (119) and LeCras (133).
And among this elite group, the SUNS spearhead was the most accurate, having kicked 300 goals and 138 behinds at 68.5%.
Lloyd, who enjoyed a 66.7% conversion rate on his way to 300 goals, was next best, from LeCras (65.8%), Cameron (65.4%), Cummings (65.2%), Fevola (57.9%) and Franklin (49.0%).
Also, King's three goals against Collingwood pushed him to the top of the goals list by players wearing jumper No. 34 all-time.
Until Saturday, he was level with ex-Richmond and Fitzroy full-forward Jeff Hogg at 298, and ahead of Hawthorn premiership midfielder John Kennedy Jnr with 210.
King has gone goalless only 21 times in 136 games – three times against GWS, twice against Adelaide, Carlton, Fremantle and Port Adelaide, and once against Brisbane, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs, and never against Hawthorn and West Coast.
He has two bags of seven goals, two bags of six goals, and seven bags of five goals.
He has posted his best numbers against West Coast (3.57 goals per game), Essendon (3.22) and Richmond (3.00), and his lowest numbers against Fremantle (1.00), Port Adelaide (1.29), GWS (1.40), Carlton (1.71), Western Bulldogs (1.83) and Adelaide (1.88).
He has kicked 169 goals in 69 wins at 2.45 goals per game, and 130 goals in 91 losses at 1.43 goals per game.
Having played at 18 different AFL venues, statistically his best is Barossa Park outside Adelaide, where he kicked five goals in his only visit in Gather Round No. 2 last year. He also kicked three goals in his only visit to Mount Barker in Gather Round No. 1.
More significantly, he has averaged 3.0 goals per game in seven games at the MCG, 2.44 goals per game in nine games at TIO Stadium in Darwin, 2.43 goals per game in seven games at Optus Stadium, 2.42 goals per game in 55 games at People First Stadium, and 2.21 goals per game in 19 games at Marvel Stadium.
Of other grounds he has visited more often, he has averaged 1.78 goals per game in nine games at the Gabba, 1.75 goals per game in four games at the SCG, 1.57 goals per game in seven games at Adelaide Oval, and 1.0 goals per game in four games at Engie Stadium.
He has never kicked a goal at Bellerive Oval in Hobart or Manuka Oval in Canberra, where he has played only once.
An analysis of King's goal-kicking statistics and his prominent ranking among modern players shows how much the game has changed in recent years, and how big bags of goals are becoming rarer.
Quickest to 300 goals all-time is Hawthorn champion Peter Hudson – he took 55 games. So he was 81 games quicker than King.
Essendon's John Coleman took 57 games, while St Kilda's Bill Mohr, Collingwood's Ron Todd and North Melbourne's Sel Murray took 73.
Adelaide's Tony Modra was quickest among players from the era of the national competition – he took 75 games to sit equal sixth with South Melbourne's Bob Pratt.
Completing the top 20 are Collingwood's Peter McKenna (76), Fitzroy's Jack Moriarty and Richmond/Collingwood's Brian Taylor (77), Hawthorn's Jason Dunstall and the Western Bulldogs' Simon Beasley (78), Richmond's Michael Roach and journeyman-cum-prankster Mark Jackson (79), Melbourne's Fred Fanning (80), Kelvin Templeton (81), West Coast's Peter Sumich and Geelong's George Moloney (82), Sydney's Warwick Capper and Geelong's Gary Ablett Snr (84).
Tony Lockett, the game's all-time leading goal-kicker, was the 21st quickest to 300 goals in his early days at St Kilda. He took 86 games.
Lockett was also the youngest at 21 years, 117 days, from Pratt, Lloyd, John Longmire, Templeton, Franklin, Sav Rocca, Ron Todd, Matthew Richardson and Coleman. King is the 46th-youngest.
King, taken at pick No. 6 in the 2018 AFL Draft, two spots behind identical twin brother Max, who went to St Kilda, leads the goal-kicking list from that draft despite missing an entire year with a knee reconstruction.
Izak Rankine, originally pick No. 3 to Gold Coast and now at Adelaide, is second on the goal-kicking list with 168, from Max King at 159 and Lachie Schulz, originally pick No. 57 to Fremantle and now at Collingwood, who has kicked 158 goals.
