If Isaac Heeney was ‘Mr Average’ he would be going on 29, would have kicked 70 goals, earned 2485 possessions, enjoyed 79 wins and polled 34 Brownlow Medal votes. That’s the statistical 150-game ‘norm’ for the 68 players ahead of him on the club’s all-time games list.
Which just goes to prove Heeney is a long way above average.
The QBE Sydney Swans Academy alumni originally from Lake Macquarie, who will become the Swans’ 69th 150-game player against Collingwood at the SCG on Sunday afternoon, will slot into an exclusive-plus statistical category of just two.
Such a prodigious talent he could play as a first-choice midfielder or forward in any AFL side, Heeney will become just the third Swans player at 150 games to have at least 2629 possessions and 190 goals on his career record, plus whatever he picks up this week.
The multi-talented utility will be just the third Swan behind Peter Bedford and Barry Mitchell to get to 150 games with A+ rankings in both key statistics. Bedford had 3324 possessions and 279 goals, and Mitchell 3775 possessions and 199 goals.
Heeney will be two and a half years younger than the average Swans 150-gamer, will be 20 per cent up on the average 150-game win tally, and about 45 per cent up on the average Brownlow vote tally at the same time, depending on how he polls this year.
So, while it is an argument ‘heavy’ in statistics it is an undeniable one. Heeney, the only AFL product from the Cardiff Hawks in Newcastle, is right up there with the very best utility players in Swans history at the corresponding stage of their career.
He will be the 11th-youngest Swans player to 150 games at 26 years 101 days. Luke Parker was youngest at 24 years 319 days, with Tony Morwood (25/50), Michael O’Loughlin (25/59), Dan Hannebery (25/67), Mark Bayes (25/132), Adam Goodes (25/363), Vic Belcher (25/363), Jarrad McVeigh (26/2), Stevie Wright (26/56) and Jude Bolton (26/87) also ahead of Heeney.
One of eight Swans to have played every game this year, he will need 13 Brownlow votes to Round 22 to become the 15th Swans player to have reached 50 votes at the 150-game mark.
With game-by-game votes prior to 1984 unavailable, triple Brownlow Medallist Bob Skilton has had most votes at 150 games with an estimated 123. He started the 1965 season with 116 votes, having already won the medal in 1959 and 1963. He polled 14 votes in 16 games in ‘65, reaching 150 in his 11th game of the year.
Herbie Matthews, joint winner in 1940, runner-up in 1937 and 1941 and third in 1936, had 117 votes at 150 games and Lance Franklin has 96 votes plus however many he gets to his 150th game in Round 17 this year. Ron Clegg, joint winner in 1950, had 92 or 93, and Barry Round, joint winner in 1981, had between 81 and 86 votes.
Other Swans with 50+ votes at 150 games are Dan Hannebery (85), Josh Kennedy (82), 1970 winner Bedford (69-78), 1995 winner Paul Kelly (70), Parker (68), Barry Hall (60), Bob Pratt (57-61) and Kieren Jack (54).
Heeney, with 2629 possessions and 190 goals from 149 games, sits mid-table among 150-gamers in these categories, leaving Swans fans to ponder where he might rank in either if he’d played his entire career in the midfield or as a permanent forward.
Kennedy (3922) heads the 150-game possessions from Jake Lloyd (3846), Barry Mitchell (3775), Dan Hannebery (3598), Daryn Cresswell (3437) , Luke Parker (3408), Peter Bedford (3324), Paul Kelly (3180), Rick Quade (2957) and Kieren Jack (2956).
Sadly, possession counts were not kept for Skilton’s first 139 games from 1956-1964. But in his last 98 games, albeit when he was an established superstar, he averaged 26.6 possessions per game. – marginally better than Kennedy’s 26.1 possession average through his first 150 games for the Swans.
Bob Pratt (651) had kicked most goals in his first 150 games from Franklin (449), Hall (432), Skilton (291), Len Mortimer (286), Bedford (279), Tony Morwood (260) and Austin Robertson (251).
With 94 wins in his 149 games Heeney will sit equal 12th on the 150-game win list if the Swans beat Collingwood on Sunday.
The ‘winningest’ 150-game player in Swans history was 1918 premiership captain Jim Caldwell who had a 104-3-43 win-draw-loss record at that point and retired five games later after two further wins and three losses. Parker (102) is second on this list ahead of Belcher (101), Kennedy (100), Franklin (99), Dane Rampe (99) and Len Mortimer (99).
Heeney, who grew up idolising ex-Swans champion Ryan O’Keefe, will be the third Swans player to reach 150 games in jumper #5 behind O’Keefe (281), who sits fifth on the all-time games list at 286 after playing his first five games in #39, and Team of the Century member John Rantall, who played each of 260 Swans games in #5 to sit seventh on the games list.
A QBE Sydney Swans Academy graduate drafted by the club with pick #18 in the 2014 AFL National Draft, Heeney was the first player from the ‘Class of 2014’ to reach 100 AFL games, but after an injury-plagued 2020 Covid season cost him 11 games he will be the sixth player from his year to 150 games.
Ahead of him now are pick Gold Coast’s pick #27 Touk Miller (158), Collingwood #30 Brayden Maynard (156), Brisbane #61 Harris Andrews (155), Western Bulldogs’ #46 Caleb Daniel (150) and Carlton’s rookie #25 Adam Saad (150).
Heeney’s 190 career goals sees him lead the Class of 2014 from Collingwood’s Jordan DeGoey (171) and Essendon’s Peter Wright (163), while Heeney’s 37 Brownlow votes ranks third in his draft year behind St Kilda captain and pick #24 Jack Steele (57) and Melbourne #2 Christian Petracca (48).
Interestingly, Heeney was the only NSW/ACT player to win a spot in the 2014 TAC Cup Under-18 Team of the Year, which included Miller, Wright, Petracca, Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw, Essendon’s Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde, St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall, Brisbane’s Rhys Mathieson, Hawthorn’s Daniel Howe, West Coast’s Liam Duggan and Carlton’s Oscar McDonald.
