If you asked Callum Mills where he would like to play his 150^th game this week he’d say the SCG. It’s a no-brainer. It’s home. But ask the number-crunchers where he should want to play it from a statistical perspective and you’d get a different answer.

The number-crunchers would pick Marvel Stadium. Because among mainstream venues it’s where the Swans co-captain has enjoyed his best win/loss ratio, with 11 wins from 16 games at 68.8%.

Astonishingly, the SCG doesn’t even rate #2. He’s going at 67.7% at Geelong’s Kardinia Park, with four wins from six games, while at home his record is 49 wins and a draw from 63 games (63.2%).

Discounted from the ‘where might he play his 150^th game?’ debate are the rare Swans destinations of Hobart and Launceston, where he is unbeaten in three visits.

So, as much as at face value it might be a little disappointing for family and friends that Mills will not to play his 150^th game against Essendon on Saturday at home, from a football perspective it’s a good thing it will be at Marvel.

Especially when, with five games to play, the Swans are 12^th on the ladder with an 8-1-9 record, a game and a half outside the top eight. And are among 10 sides sitting 5^th to 14^th on the ladder separated by just two wins. As they are.

This concedes the top four sides – Collingwood, Port Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne – will play finals. And that the bottom four sides – West Coast, North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Fremantle – will not play finals.

So as 26-year-old Mills prepares to become the 72^nd player to post 150 games for the Swans he can be excused for having a sneaky look at the AFL draw from Rounds 19-24.

First and foremost, after Essendon at Marvel the Swans will finish the home-and-away season against GWS (Giants Stadium), Gold Coast (SCG), Adelaide (Adelaide Oval) and Melbourne (SCG).

The draw for the other contenders, with the current ladder position and win/loss record, is:

WESTERN BULLDOGS (5^th - 10-8): GWS (Ballarat), Richmond (Marvel), Hawthorn (Launceston), W/Coast (Marvel), Geelong (Kardinia Park).

ST KILDA (6^th 10-8): Hawthorn (Marvel), Carlton (Marvel), Richmond (Marvel), Geelong (Marvel), Brisbane (Gabba).

GWS (7^th – 10-8): W/Bulldogs (Ballarat), Sydney (Giants Stadium), Port Adelaide (Adelaide Oval), Essendon (Giants Stadium), Carlton (Marvel).

GEELONG (8^th – 9-1-8): Fremantle (Kardinia Park), Port Adelaide (Kardinia Park), Collingwood (MCG), St Kilda (Marvel), W/Bulldogs (Kardinia Park).

CARLTON (9^th – 9-1-8): Collingwood (MCG), St Kilda (Marvel), Melbourne (MCG), Gold Coast (Carrara), GWS (Marvel).

RICHMOND (10^th – 9-1-8): Melbourne (MCG), W/Bulldogs (Marvel), St Kilda (Marvel), North Melb (MCG), Port Adelaide (Adelaide Oval).

ESSENDON (11^th – 9-9): Sydney (Marvel), W/Coast (Marvel), North Melb (Marvel), GWS (Giants Stadium), Collingwood (MCG).

ADELAIDE (13^th – 8-10): Port Adelaide (Adelaide Oval), Gold Coast (Adelaide Oval), Brisbane (Gabba), Sydney (Adelaide Oval), W/Coast (Perth Stadium).

GOLD COAST (14^th – 8-10): Brisbane (Carrara), Adelaide (Adelaide Oval), Sydney (SCG), Carlton (Carrara), North Melb (Hobart).

Barring another draw, Sydney, with a percentage of 111.8%, will only have to worry about the percentage of the other three sides who have had a draw – Geelong (121.0%), Carlton (116.1%) and Richmond (99.9%).

Likewise, the other six teams in 10-way battle for four spots – Bulldogs (106.4%), St Kilda (104.7%), GWS (102.2%), Essendon (98.4%), Adelaide (113.5) and Gold Coast (92.3%).

While the Swans will finish with two interstate travels in the last five weeks, GWS and Gold Coast will fly three times, Adelaide twice, Bulldogs, St Kilda, Carlton, Richmond and Essendon once, and Geelong not at all. They have three games at Kardinia Park and two drives to Melbourne.

While the Swans have one game against a top four opponent, Geelong, Carlton, Richmond and Adelaide have two. St Kilda, GWS, Essendon and Gold Coast have one, and Bulldogs none.

While the Swans, like St Kilda, GWS and Carlton, won’t play any of the bottom four sides, Geelong, Richmond, Essendon, Adelaide and Gold Coast have one and the Bulldogs, have two.

But Mills will leave all that to family and friends and the number-crunchers and instead focus solely on Saturday night at Marvel, where not only does he have a good record but where the Swans have gone 15-8 (62.4%) overall since his debut in 2016.

Mills played his second AFL game at Marvel in Round 2, 2016, picking up 19 possessions in a 60-point win over Carlton in what was the AFL debut of Carlton’s Charlie Curnow, who has now played 102 games.

Mills played his 50^th AFL game at Marvel against the Bulldogs in Round 4, 2018, when the Swans won by seven points on an Ollie Florent clincher inside the last two minutes, and had a Marvel-best 31 possessions against the Dogs in Round 17, 2021, when the Swans won by 19 points and he picked up two Brownlow Medal votes – his only votes at Marvel.

Also, memorable have been the moments he’s shared with teammates at Marvel. The AFL debut of Robbie Fox, Will Hayward, James Rowbottom and Nick Blakey, Dane Rampe’s 100^th and 200^th games, Harry Cunningham’s 150^th and Kieren Jack’s 250^th.

He’s enjoyed wins at Marvel over North, St Kilda, Carlton, Bulldogs and Gold Coast (due to Covid in 2021) but has never played Essendon at Marvel.

It’s all part of a memorable journey for the boy from Sydney’s northern beaches who had a brief flirtation with rugby union at school but at 13 joined the Swans Academy and has never looked back.

He was drafted at pick #3 in the 2015 National Draft when the AFL had introduced for the first time live bidding for on club-aligned young talent. After Carlton took Jacob Weitering at #1 and Brisbane went with Josh Schache at #2 Melbourne bid on Mills, forcing the Swans to pay ‘top dollar’ for him.

Completing the top dozen were Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver (#4), Essendon’s Darcy Parish (#5) and Aaron Francis (#6), GWS’ Jacob Hopper (#7), Gold Coast’s Callum Ah Chee (#8), Melbourne’s Sam Weideman (#9), Carlton’s Harry McKay (#10), Adelaide’s Wayne Milera (#11) and Carlton’s Charlie Curnow (#12).

Later in the same draft, after having ‘paid’ for Mills with picks #33, #36, #37 and #43, the Swans took Tyrone Leonardis (#51) and Jordan Dawson (#56), and four rookies: Tom Papley (#14), Harry Marsh (#32), Kyle Galloway (#59) and Sam Murray (#66).

Going on eight years later, Mills will be the fifth member of the Draft Class of 2015 to 150 games behind Papley (159), Oliver (157), Richmond pick #15 Daniel Rioli (155) and Weitering (151).

Oliver, sidelined since Round 10 by injury to allow Papley to go to the top of the games list, is still the leading possession-winner from that year with 4601, from Parish (3510), Mills (3060) and Josh Dunkley (3003). Dunkley was drafted by the Bulldogs at #25.

Papley is the leading goal-kicker with 253 from Brisbane pick #14 Eric Hipwood (221), Curnow (204) and McKay (200), and Oliver has most Brownlow Medal votes at 110 to the end of last season. Mills (44) is next best from Dunkley (40) and Parish (34).

Mills is one of only two players from the 2015 draft to have captained their AFL club. Ironically, Dawson, now at Adelaide, is the other.

Having won the Bob Skilton Medal last year after finishing 5^th-6^th-5^th in 2019-20-21, Mills is one of six club B&F winners from the 2015 draft. Oliver has four, and Weitering, Parish, Dunkley and Sam Collins, drafted by Fremantle with pick #55 in the rookie draft and now at Gold Coast, have one each.

Mills also who won the 2016 AFL Rising Star award with 49 votes from Bulldogs’ Caleb Daniel (41), Weitering (26), Parish (9), Collingwood’s Darcy Moore (9), St.Kilda’s Jade Gresham (2), Oliver and Melbourne clubmate Christian Petracca (1), and Fremantle’s Lachie Weller (1). Gresham was pick #18 in 2015, while Daniel, Moore, Petracca and Weller were 2014 draftees.

Wearing the much-revered #14 Swans jumper, he also won the AFL Players’ Association best first-year player award in 2016 and is one of six All-Australians from the Class of 2015 with Oliver (3), Papley, Parish, McKay and Curnow.

Mills’ 3060 possessions going into his 150^th game sees him ninth among Swans players at the same milestone behind Josh Kennedy (3922), Jake Lloyd (3846), Barry Mitchell (3775), Dan Hannebery (3598), Daryn Cresswell (3437), Luke Parker (3408), Peter Bedford (3324) and Paul Kelly (3180).

He will be the club’s 12^th-youngest 150-gamer at 26 years 118 days – the youngest was Parker at 24 years 319 days – and his 84 wins, potentially 85, will rank in the 30s on a list headed by 1918 premiership captain Jim Caldwell, who won 104 of his first 150 games.

And in one statistic that might mean a little more to him, if only for bragging rights against fellow Academy graduate Isaac Heeney, Mills will be either equal 16^th or 17^th on the Brownlow Medal vote list at 150 games.

With 44 votes going into this season, Mills is level with Heeney’s 150-game vote tally. Bob Skilton, with something between 116 and 130 votes, and Herbie Matthews, with 117, had most votes among Swans players at 150 games.