Brodie Grundy admits he regrets that six years ago he hadn’t stopped to ‘smell the roses’ after his 100th AFL game. So on the occasion of his 200th he made sure he did … and celebrated with a statistical first.
Grundy marked his double-century with a pivotal role in the Swans’ 53-point SCG win over the Gold Coast Suns, collecting 24 disposals, 29 hit-outs, an equal career-high 11 tackles and a goal.
It was only the fourth time in his glittering career he’d registered 10 or more tackles, and the first time he’d had 20-plus in disposals and hit-outs, double-figures in tackles and got on the goal sheet in the same game.
Speaking with Fox Footy after Sydney completed the equal-best start to a season in coach John Longmire’s 14 seasons at the helm, Grundy admitted he hadn’t fully appreciated at the time the significance of his 100th game in Round 19, 2018.
It was a big occasion for the then Collingwood star. The third-placed Magpies took on ladder-leading premiers Richmond in front of 88,180 at the MCG.
Grundy had 23 possessions, 48 hit-outs and 10 tackles to get the better of Richmond opposite Toby Nankervis and rank among his side’s best players, but after the Pies conceded 5.3 to 1.3 in the final term to lose by 28 points, he moved on immediately.
“I’m going to make sure I enjoy this one (his 200th),” said Grundy, noting how much he was enjoying his football this year after moving to Sydney.
He also told how, contrary to most ruckmen, he takes special pride in his tackling and follow-up work, and his ability to not just contest in the ruck but provide pressure around the contest when the ball comes to ground.
It’s no idle claim. In 2018-19, when he won the Collingwood best & fairest and All-Australian selection, he ranked 2nd and 3rd at the club for tackles. Only Scott Pendlebury bettered him in 2018 before Pendlebury and Adam Treloar did likewise in 2019.
Having become the 668th player to reach 200 games among a total of 13,126 players all-time, Grundy is building a career that statistically will see him rank with the very best ruckman in the modern era.
Already he ranks 8th all-time for ruck hit-outs, which have been kept since 1966.
He has 6144 to sit behind only Todd Goldstein (9974), Aaron Sandilands (8502), Max Gawn (6926), Sam Jacobs (6789), Dean Cox (6628), Gary Dempsey (6479) and Shane Mumford (6354), with Justin Madden (5746) and Jarrod Witts (5652) completing the top 10.
After 200 games Grundy ranks 4th for hit-outs among this group, and, more significantly, he is first for possessions, contested possessions and clearances, is second for tackles, third for Brownlow Medal votes and fourth for contested marks.
And with just one vote in the first six games of this season he will be equal second for votes.
He averages 17.2 possessions, 0.35 goals, 30.7 hit-outs. 4.1 tackles, 4.0 clearances, 10.0 contested possessions and 0.9 contested marks – astonishing for a player of 203cm.
Having celebrated his 30th birthday on April 15, Grundy reached 200 games four years younger than Mumford, more than a year younger than Gawn, Sandilands and Jacobs, and less than a year older than Goldstein, Dempsey, Madden and Cox. Witts is 31 but has played only 170 games.
Sydney’s comprehensive win over the Suns gave the Swans their fifth 5-1 start under coach Longmire after they did likewise in 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2022.
It is the club’s seventh 5-1 start the Sydney era, which began in 1982.
Only once in that time has the club started with an unblemished record through six games – that was in Tom Hafey’s first year in charge in 1986 before they started 5-1 under Hafey in 1987 and again in 1998 under Rodney Eade.
