u/juiceson

So this is it - Round 11, Part 2 of Sir Doug Nicholls Round, one of the more eventful weekends of the season is upon us, as 90,000+ fans prepare to celebrate boundary umpire Ian Burrows in his 450th game, Harley Reid in his 50th game, and some geriatric Collingwood player that thinks he's Goldfinger is playing his league record 433rd game.

Amazing scenes as Scott Pendlebury becomes the 14th different player to hold the league's games record, as Brent Harvey's claim to history survived just under a decade, which is a decent run when you consider there's been extremes like Michael Tuck holding it for just under 26 years (1990-2016), Dick Reynolds held it for 20 years (1950-70), while John Rantall held the record of 336 games for just over 4 months in 1980 until Kevin Bartlett took it from him, and John Nicholls passed Ted Whitten in Round 9, 1974 and retired on 328 games... Big Nick was caught by Kevin Murray in Round 18 of that year.

Anyway, apparently there's some other important games on this weekend:

• The day after the AFL decided to murder the Tasmania-Hawthorn contract, the Hawks play the Crows on a Thursday night in Launceston, and in this the 25th anniversary year of AFL games in Launceston, it's worth noting that these 2 teams were the first to play a game at York Park - May 6, 2001.

• In a game that will sit as the rampaging favourite to be the worst game played in 2026, we have the DREAMTIME SPOONBOWL between Richmond and Essendon as the Channel 7 game on Friday night... somehow this game will find a way to top the shitmix that was Round 18 of last year.

• In the other DOUBLEHEADER AFTER DARK, Freo/Walyalup host St Kilda/Euro-Yroke at Optus, another chapter in the utterly weird history between the teams, as the Dockers go for a club record 10th consecutive win.

• North Melbourne host the Gold Coast at Marvel on Saturday afternoon, as the Suns go from playing in Darwin to playing in a place with absolutely no atmosphere at all... in fact, it's their first game south of Tweed Heads since ANZAC Day.

• One of the great contests of the season as Geelong host the Sydney Swans in Sleepy Hollow, and oddly enough this'll only be the second time in the last 6 years that the teams have played at GMHBA, although it appears the AFL didn't want to send the Swans back after what the Cats did to them in 2023.

• Collingwood host West Coast in the Scott Pendlebury game at the MCG, and it's great to see the Eagles will also join in the ceremonies and wear gold numbers for Harley's 50th game.

• The Yartapuulti Pear host Carlton at the Adelaide Oval, and after being one of the greatest 3-7 teams in AFL history, can the Pear become the greatest 3-8 team in AFL history?

• GWS host Brisbane at the Showground, and the Giants have a fairly decent record against Brisbane of late, as this'll be the first time since 2020 that the teams have played a home & away game at the Showground, because the last meeting there was the rather memorable 2024 Semi Final... the Giants were only 44 points up in that game.

• And an early finish to the round has the Western Bulldogs hosting Melbourne at Marvel, a rivalry that was brewing along pretty well as recently as 4 years ago, but it's now just waiting for someone to light a cigarette near a powder keg again.

I HOPE ALL OF THESE PLAYERS ARE WEARING GOLD NUMBERS

• Scott Pendlebury's 433rd game, passing Brent Harvey on 432 games for the VFL/AFL record... it also means Collingwood have reclaimed that record after Gordon Coventry's 306 games was passed by Jack Dyer in Round 10, 1949.

• A win on Friday night would mark Fremantle's 10th consecutive win, the first time the Dockers will have achieved a double-digit win streak after falling twice before (2006 & 2015).

• 200 games for Dan Houston (168 for Port, 32nd for Collingwood) and Jayden Short ... Houston you have a problem because you picked the wrong damn game for your milestone

• 150 games for Zak Butters , Harry McKay and whenever the hell Jack Bowes plays again

• Dion Prestia's 150th game for Richmond

• Jordan Dawson's 100th game for Adelaide

• Fremantle's 100th game at Optus Stadium (60 wins, 1 draw and 38 defeats)

• Sam Flanders , Hayden McLean and Tom Powell are all due to play their 100th game, although none of them will play this week

• 50 games for Harley Reid , Neil Erasmus and Colby McKercher

Another random one - Geelong and Essendon are now level on the same amount of all-time wins (1430)

Alright friends, on to Round 10 and the first week of Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, as old favourites like Narrm, Yartapuulti and Walyalup are back in the league, Carlton claim the coach sacking race on a technicality, and every football game this week gets replaced with a Subway Surfer livestream to pump up the league's TikTok viewership.

Seriously, why couldn't they show a game that we can all relate to... A stream of someone going around kicking people as Homer in Hit and Run for one.

Also, it was brought up in the Michael Voss resignation thread that this is the 9th time since 2001 that a coach has resigned or been sacked before playing the Bulldogs... last night I had a deep dive and it really is true:

• Round 16, 2001: Malcolm Blight got sacked by St Kilda and Grant Thomas stepped in ahead of a game against the Bulldogs

• Round 13, 2004: Gary Ayres resigned as coach of Adelaide, his last game was against the Bulldogs

• Round 11, 2009: Terry Wallace resigned as coach of Richmond, his last game was against the Bulldogs

• Round 13, 2009: Dani Laidley resigned as coach of North Melbourne, Darren Crocker stepped in ahead of a game against the Bulldogs

• Round 16, 2010: Mark Williams resigned as coach of Port Adelaide after Round 15, Matthew Primus stepped in ahead of a game against the Bulldogs

• Round 10, 2019: Brad Scott resigned as coach of North Melbourne, his last game was against the Bulldogs

• Round 18, 2019: Alan Richardson resigned as coach of St Kilda, Brett Ratten stepped in ahead of a game against the Bulldogs

• Round 22, 2025: Simon Goodwin is sacked by Melbourne after Round 21, Troy Chaplin stepped in ahead of a game against the Bulldogs

If you also include one-off caretakers, there's John Blakey coaching the Brisbane Lions against the Bulldogs in Round 18, 2005 (Leigh Matthews' mother passed away) and Ash Hansen coached Carlton against the Bulldogs in Round 2, 2022 after Michael Voss had a positive COVID test.

Anyway, on to the games:

• The Grand Final rematch returns as the Brisbane Lions host Geelong at the Gabba on Thursday, which is apparently the AFL's attempt to give the finger to the NRL's Magic Round, and you may think waiting until Round 10 for a Grand Final rematch is a long time, just remember that in 2006 we had to wait until Round 15 (July 15) for West Coast to play Sydney, only 294 days after the Grand Final... thankfully, the next wait wasn't as long.

• Yet another Friday night doubleheader as the Sydney Swans host Collingwood at the SCG, as Collingwood have basically tanked this game in favour of Scott Pendlebury's 433rd game next week, so there'll be no luck catching them Swans then.

• The Darwin Suns host Yartapuulti Pear in the Top End in the other Friday night game, as the Suns go for 10 straight wins in their ancestral fortress, and of course the Pear played in the first game in Darwin back in 2004, with this being their first game there since losing to the Bulldogs in 2013.

• The Kuwarna Crom host North Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval, and to call a spade a spade North's record in Adelaide is hideous, having lost 13 out of 13 at the Adelaide Oval (They're also 0-4 during Gather Round), and their last win against the Crows in Adelaide was at Football Park in 2003, with that Crows team featuring Wayne Carey.

• Narrm host Hawthorn at the MCG in the Saturday twilight, and what an enormously entertaining game this should be with both teams able to score pretty well, Changkuoth Jiath goes up against the Hawks for the first time and Jack Ginnivan plays his 100th game... I would also expect there'll be a 30th anniversary for the Merger Match.

• Carlton play the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night at Marvel, and it's the return of 3 words that all Bulldogs fans dread... NEW COACH BOUNCE.

• Essendon host Walyalup at the MCG on Sunday afternoon, as the AFL decided to host the teams at the MCG again after the 2024 game proved tremendously catastrophic for the Dockers' finals chances as Sam Durham kicked a behind with seconds remaining to win the game for the Bombers by a solitary point... it would've made Jack Higgins' goal against Carlton a few weeks later even funnier.

• Euro-Yroke host Richmond at Marvel as both teams pile up the injuries as NAS is now out for 3 games, while Richmond have an estimated 347 players out for at least 3 games.

• And the lucky last game, superbly isolated at the random start time of 4:15pm on a Sunday afternoon, is Waalitj Marawar hosting GWS at Optus Stadium, and it's good to see Waalitj Marawar succeed West Coast in the traditional Sunday afternoon graveyard slot.

MILESTONE BERGMAN

This weekend marks the first time a former No.1 draft pick (Josh Fraser in 1999) will be the head coach of an AFL team

150 games for Jack Bowes and James Rowbottom

Luke Beveridge requires 1 win to reach 150 wins as an AFL coach (149W 113L so far)

West Coast play their 100th game at Optus Stadium (44 wins 55 defeats so far)

100 games for Jack Ginnivan (42 for Collingwood, 58th for Hawthorn), Hayden McLean , Connor MacDonald and whenever Tom Powell gets back

50 games for Harvey Thomas and Darcy Wilson

Well folks on we go to the Mother's Day weekend, which once again brings about a double header Friday night, which has been the case in the Mother's Day Round since 2022, before the AFL decided to have an overdose on Friday night doubleheaders and schedule them every fucking week.

Still, kids these days aren't old enough to remember when they had St Kilda and Carlton play on the Monday night after Mother's Day.

Anyway, some decent games this weekend, as we see 2nd play 3rd, and Scott Pendlebury comes back to play game 432... before he disappears again and we wait for game 433 in a few weeks.

• Fremantle host Hawthorn at Optus Stadium on Thursday night in the biggest game between the teams since the 2015 Preliminary Final, and I was about to ask myself when was the last time 2 teams in the Top 4 played each other this season... then I realised Sydney and Melbourne played each other last week, and the Swans and Suns were 2nd and 3rd prior to Gather Round.

• The first game on Friday night has the Brisbane Lions hosting Carlton at the Gabba, and what an appropriate place it would be for a Lions legend in Michael Voss to be unceremoniously dumped as Carlton coach after the game... of course, Denis Pagan got the sack after a game there in 2007, and back in 1989 Robert Walls got the sack after losing to the Brisbane Bears, who he later coached.

• Port Adelaide host the Western Bulldogs at the Adelaide Oval, as both teams come off tough losses in last Friday night's doubleheader, and The Bont is apparently carrying a few injuries into the game, so don't be surprised if the poor guy spontaneously combusts trying to carry the team.

• North Melbourne host the Sydney Swans at Marvel on Saturday afternoon, a ground at which North haven't defeated the Swans since 2007, in which time they've had some classic moments like the draw when the Swans had 19 players on the field, a 1-point result in 2011, that time the Kangaroos lost because they took 76 interchanges instead of 75... all the classics.

• GWS host Essendon at the Showground.... yep, moving on.

• The almighty Darwin Suns host St Kilda in the Top End capital, which marks the first time St Kilda have played an NT game outside of Alice Springs, and the Suns in this game will go for 9 consecutive wins at Marrara.... which is longer than any winning streak they've ever had at Carrara (Which is 7)

• As is normally the case Geelong host Collingwood at the MCG, and stealing the limelight from Tom Stewart's 200th game we have Scott Pendlebury equalling Brent Harvey on the all-time league record of 432 games, and what a run it's been... 432 games, none of them in Geelong, none of them in Tasmania, none of them in the Northern Territory, none of them in Canberra.

He really has missed out on seeing some of the great cultural armpits of Australia.

• Melbourne host West Coast at Marvel on Mother's Day, as West Coast's confidence returns to somewhere below the earth's core after getting Richmond a win, and a random note is that Melbourne can actually equal their all-time longest winning streak against the Eagles, which was 4 wins between 1988 and 1990... at that point they actually had a 6-3 head-to-head record against the Eagles, which the Eagles promptly blew out over the next 30 years.

• And the early finish on Mother's Day has Richmond hosting Adelaide at the MCG, and I do hope we get to see the Crows defenders melt Tom Lynch's brain once again, because that was very funny last year.

So there you go, unfortunately we won't get to see the Brisbane Lions draw on Mother's Day for the third year in a row, so we can declare the Threepeat chance FINISHED.

AND I WOULD WALK 500 MILESTONES, AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE

Scott Pendlebury's 432nd game, equals Brent Harvey for the all-time league record... Pendlebury would be the 15th player to have at least a share of the all-time games record.

Ross Lyon's 200th game as coach of St Kilda (113 wins, 4 draws and 82 defeats), joins Allan Jeans (333) as the only coaches to coach St Kilda for 200+ games

200 games for Tom Stewart

150 games for Matt Kennedy (19 for GWS, 99 for Carlton and 32nd for the Bulldogs) and Patrick Lipinski (56 for the Western Bulldogs, 94th for Collingwood)

100 games for Sam Durham and Tom Powell .... Powell has only played in 18 wins through his first 99 games, which would give him the worst winning percentage of any current player with at least 100 games, which is currently Luke Davies-Uniacke (22.46%)

50 games for Buku Khamis and whenever Sam Banks comes back