Greg Williams had 30 possessions or more 51 times in 107 games for the Sydney Swans and topped 40 four times. But only once did the ever-prolific centreman better 50 possessions.

It was a personal best, a club record and the SCG record. And it was 31 years ago today.

On 13 August 1989, playing against St Kilda at the SCG in Round 19, Williams accumulated 53 possessions and a career-best six goals in a 50-point Swans win.

His 53 possessions not only bettered the previous club record of 46 – set by Bob Skilton in 1967 and matched by Barry Mitchell in 1991 – but it was also an all-time AFL record.

This was equalled by then Gold Coast’s Gary Ablett in 2012, and finally bettered by Hawthorn’s ex-Swan Tom Mitchell when he had 54 possessions against Collingwood in Round 1, 2018.

Williams was the third player in AFL history to have 50 possessions in a game after Collingwood’s Barry Price had 52 in Round 4, 1971 and Collingwood’s John Greening had 51 four weeks later, and the first and only player to have 50 at the SCG.

Collingwood’s Tony Shaw followed with 50 in 1991 before Adelaide’s Scott Thompson had 50 in 2011, and Ablett had his 53 in 2012.

Tom Mitchell joined the ‘50 Club’ in 2017 and he broke the record with his 54 in Round 1 this year. He added another 50 in Round 15 this year.

The wildcard in this debate is the incomparable Skilton.

It wasn’t until 1967 that full possession statistics were kept in all matches, and by then Skilton had two Brownlow Medals and six Swans Club Champion Awards.

Almost as if to make a statement, in Round 1 of 1967, in the first game in which they kept statistics, Skilton had 37 possessions against North Melbourne at the old Coburg Oval.

That stood as a club record for seven weeks until Skilton, on his way to an eighth Club Champion Award, had 42 possessions in Round 8 against Hawthorn at Lake Oval.

Then, two years later, in 1967, the little master had his 46 possessions to set a mark that would not be bettered for 22 years until Williams produced something extraordinary.

Statistically at least, Williams’ 53 possessions was the best game of his stellar career as he collected 17.6% of his team’s 301 possessions and kicked 24% of his team’s 25 goals.

It was all part of a legacy that survives even today.

Williams’ 51 games of 30 or more possessions in 107 Swans games means that he topped this mark in 47.7% of his games in red and white – a club record.

Barry Mitchell (35.9%), Gerard Healy (35.8%), Josh Kennedy (34.6%), Tom Mitchell (29.2%), Dan Hannebery (27.9%) and Wayne Schwass (21.4%) are the only other players above 20%.

Despite playing only 107 Swans games, his 51 games of 30 or more disposals is fourth on the all-time club list behind Kennedy’s 73 30+ possession games in 211 matches, Barry Mitchell’s 61 in 170 games and Hannebery’s 57 in 204 games, and ahead of Daryn Cresswell’s 46 in 244 games (18.9%), Gerard Healy’s 29 in 81 games (35.8%), Jarrad McVeigh’s 28 in 316 games (8.9%) and Luke Parker’s 235 in 170 games (14.7%).

In the 98 games of Skilton’s career from 1965-1971 in which statistics were kept, he had 27 30+ possession games at 27.6% but one wonders what this figure might have been if statistics had gone back to his 1956 debut and taken in the prime of his career.

Even despite that, Skilton’s 44 kicks in his 46-possession game in 1967 remains the all-time best.

Similarly, the Swans record books would look entirely different if Williams had played his entire career in Sydney.

Add his 34 games at Geelong from 1984-85 and his 109 games at Carlton from 1992-97 to his Swans numbers and he’d have a total of 96 games of 30+ possessions in 250 games at 38.4%.

This ranks him sixth all-time in 30 or more games and third in the top 10 in averages.

Josh Kennedy is so far in 14^th position overall with 73 at 32.6%. The top 10 is:

Whatever the numbers say, Williams, chosen in the Sydney, Carlton and AFL Team of the Century and Hall of Fame, is one of the all-time greats.

While he was zoned to Carlton after growing up in Bendigo, he was twice rejected by the Blues in 1982-83 because he was too slow and didn’t get his chance until 1984 at Geelong.

He had 38 possessions and earned three Brownlow Medal votes on debut aged 20 under coach Tom Hafey, and in his first season won the AFLPA MVP and finished equal fourth in the Brownlow Medal before following Hafey to the Swans in 1986 after Hafey was sacked by the Cats.

He shared the Brownlow Medal with Robert Dipierdomenico in 1986, was ninth in the voting in 1987 when ineligible, and equal third in 1989 when ineligible again.

At the end of 1991 he was hotly pursued by Carlton and Melbourne after declaring he wanted to return to Melbourne, and when St Kilda refused a Sydney trade request that included a young Robert Harvey, Williams went to Carlton.

In a three-way deal, Sydney picked up Simon Minton-Connell from Carlton and Darren Kappler from Fitzroy, Carlton got Williams, and Fitzroy added Peter Sartori and Ashley Matthews.

Williams was runner-up in the 1993 Brownlow Medal and won it for a second time in 1994, when he also won the AFLPA MVP for a second time.

He was All-Australian vice-captain in 1993 and All-Australian captain in 1994, and won the Norm Smith Medal in Carlton’s 1995 grand final win over Carlton.