A Six-Pack of IPA (Interesting Points, Allegedly): Caleb Serong’s historic stat line, Eagle’s baptism of fire

Baptism of fire It was hard not to feel for Sandy Brock in his West Coast debut, with the key defender spending 106 of the game’s 116 minutes directly matched up with Jesse Hogan. The Coleman medallist booted eight of his nine goals in that time. According to Champion Data, Brock is just the 14th defender to concede eight or more majors to a direct opponent since match-up stats began being tracked in 2006 – and he’s easily the least experienced. Adelaide’s Mark Keane had previously held that title after giving up nine goals to Sydney’s Joel Amartey in his 23rd AFL appearance last year. Hogan’s day out continued a recent theme of the Eagles conceding big bags: It’s the sixth time in the past three seasons they’ve had an opposition forward kick nine or more, having conceded just five such hauls in the club’s first 36 seasons. Conceding 8+ goals to a direct opponent Source: Champion Data Elite company Caleb Serong stuffed the stats sheet in Fremantle’s win over the Western Bulldogs in a manner only seen in an AFL game just twice before – by a pair of players who possess four Brownlow medals between them. Serong’s clip of 38 disposals, 24 contested possessions, 15 clearances and seven tackles emulated the feat of Gary Ablett Jr (2017) and Patrick Cripps (2019) in reaching such lofty numbers across those four key categories. Serong’s clearance count was the second-highest in a game in Freo history – behind his own effort of 17 against the same opponent last year – while he fell just two contested touches short of Nat Fyfe’s Dockers record of 26. Freo’s flurry The second-quarter scoring burst that earned the Dockers a half-time standing ovation was mere seconds away from being their quickest-ever six-goal blitz in the Justin Longmuir era. There was 13 minutes and four seconds between the Michael Frederick goal that started the run and the Jeremy Sharp major that completed it, just shy of the 12 minutes and 46 seconds it took for a Bailey Banfield-inspired six-goal stretch in a win over Brisbane in 2022. In last Sunday’s purple patch, Freo had a 6-1 clearance domination, won contested ball 18-5, and banged on 6.2 from just 10 forward-50 entries. Andrew Brayshaw led the way in that period, with eight disposals at 100 per cent efficiency to go with two goal assists and a major of his own. Sizzling spearhead Not since Matthew Pavlich almost two decades ago has a Fremantle forward found the big sticks with as much consistency as Josh Treacy. The spearhead is on a streak of 25 consecutive games with at least one major – the best by a Docker since Pavlich reeled off 29 straight across 2006-07. With another big game this weekend, Treacy can also become the first player in purple to string together four matches in a row with 3+ goals since Hayden Ballantyne in his All-Australian year of 2014. 300 up? The next player to make his debut for West Coast – be it Bo Allan or otherwise – will notch a considerable milestone for the club: They’ll be Eagle No.300. There’s a fair gulf in the career resumes of the players to have been the 100th and 200th to feature for the club, with Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins Eagle No.100 – in an alphabetical tiebreaker with that game’s fellow debutant Phil Matera – and one-gamer Gerrick Weedon the club’s 200th representative. Nomad Suns It’s surprising that Gold Coast have had such a poor road record, historically – because they’ve been shunted from venue to venue more than any other club. The Suns will this week be the first club (along with opponents North Melbourne) to play at Barossa Park, continuing an amazing streak of featuring at every new stadium to host an AFL game for the past 12 seasons. Gold Coast are the only club to have played at least once at each of Alice Springs’ Traeger Park, China’s Jiangwan Stadium, Ballarat’s Mars Stadium, Optus Stadium, Townsville’s Riverway Stadium, and now the three new Gather Round venues in Mount Barker, Norwood and the Barossa. To highlight the contrast between ‘Off-Broadway’ and ‘Hollywood’ clubs, Collingwood’s Alan Didak played at just six venues across the entirety of his 218-game, 13-season career between 2001 and 2013.