What are the primary statistics that best measure the output of Swans co-captain and round 5 milestone man Luke Parker?
Games, possessions, and goals? Always. They are fundamental for all players. To be of any value, a player must be fit and available to play, able to win the ball and capable enough to do something with it.
But what about statistics more specific to a bull-like inside midfielder like Parker, who will play his 200th AFL game against West Coast at the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon?
Maybe contested possessions, tackles, and clearances? They are the statistics that focus on the engine room where Parker does his best work. Inside and under extra pressure.
And perhaps an outside “opinion” to complete the Parker Performance Measurement Package (PPMP)? Maybe add Brownlow Medal votes?
Collectively, it’s a tough performance criterion that doesn’t allow for weaknesses.
And it tells us that, of all the midfielders who have played in the AFL since Round 1 2014, Parker is one of only two who rank in the top 10 in every one of these seven statistical categories.
The broad nature of the criteria rules out some players. Like Patrick Dangerfield, who misses on tackles. Dustin Martin misses on tackles and clearances. And Lachie Neale misses on goals and tackles.
Parker is ranked #2 in games over the past six years and four rounds, #3 in tackles, #4 in goals, #5 in contested possessions, #6 in Brownlow votes, #7 in clearances and #9 in contested possessions.
He has averaged 25.4 possessions (12.9 contested possessions), 0.85 goals, 5.6 tackles, 5.7 clearances per game. And 0.63 Brownlow votes.
It is an outstanding record for any player in a competition in which the depth of quality midfielders is endless, but it is downright extraordinary for a player drafted at #40 in the 2010 AFL National Draft as Parker was.
It’s enough to make you think that Parker is the best #40 draft pick in history. But is he?
The wonderfully humble young man from Langwarrin in Victoria would not even contemplate such a thing. He’d probably insist he is not even close.
Indeed, if you are a Swans fan looking to buy a gold lotto ticket any time soon it might be worth making sure that number 40 is included. Because #40 it has proven to be a golden number for the club in the AFL draft.
Not only was Parker pick #40 but so, too, was 300-game 1994 draftee Michael O’Loughlin. And Josh Kennedy, who played his 250th AFL game last weekend, was originally pick #40 to Hawthorn as a father/son choice in 2006 before heading to the Harbour City.
Indeed, while the career statistics of this trio are what you would expect from a top 10 pick there have been a host of good players taken at #40.
Gary Ablett Jnr, dual Brownlow Medallist who will play his 350th AFL game this weekend, was a father/son pick #40 in 2001. Matthew Lappin, who played 251 games for St Kilda and Carlton, was pick #40 in 1993, and David Hille, a 197-gamer at Essendon, was pick #40 in 1999.
Ivan Maric played 157 games for Adelaide and Richmond after being pick #40 in 2004, while three well-performed current players went at #40 in the drafts immediately after Kennedy. Chris Mayne, who has played 221 games with Fremantle and Collingwood, went in 2007, and was followed in 2008 by Mitch Robinson, who has played 195 games with Carlton and Brisbane, and in 2009 by Geelong premiership player Allen Christensen, who is now at Brisbane and a 133-game veteran.
Other current players drafted at #40 include Melbourne’s Alex Neal-Bullen, a 75-gamer drafted in 2014, and Geelong’s Tom Stewart, who has quickly put together 72 games since being drafted in 2016.
The Swan have drafted two other players at #40 in the National Draft. In 1990 they took Mark Collins from South Fremantle, who never played a senior game. And in 1997, in one of the most talked about picks in club history, the Swans utilised pick #40 to claim Fred Campbell from the Bendigo Pioneers before taking Adam Goodes at #43. Campbell played five games for Sydney and seven games for St Kilda.
Parker will be just the fifth player from the 2010 draft to reach 200 AFL games.
Ahead of him are Hawthorn’s Isaac Smith, who posted his double-century in Round 23 last year, West Coast’s Andrew Gaff and North Melbourne’s Shaun Atley, who did so in Round 3 this year, and West Coast’s Jack Darling, who got there last weekend.
But who will end up the ‘dux’ of the Class of 2010? The best player overall?
Having been runner-up to Patrick Dangerfield in the 2016 Brownlow Medal, Parker already has done enough to stamp his claim as a legitimate contender.
He has polled most Brownlow votes from players drafted in 2010, ranks 2nd to Gaff in possessions and 10th overall in goals – 2nd in goals by a midfielder behind Smith.
Certainly, like a host of Swans past and present, he would enjoy a much higher profile and much greater recognition if he lived and played in AFL heartland.
Top 10 in each of these key statistics among the Class of 2010 are:
Games: 1. Isaac Smith (Haw) 204; 2. Andrew Gaff (WC) and Shaun Atley (NM) 201; 4. Jack Darling (WC) 200; 5. Luke Parker (Syd) 199; 6. Paul Puopolo (Haw) 191; 7. Jeremy Howe (Melb/Coll) 187; 8. Luke Dahlhaus (WB/Geel) 182; 9. Brodie Smith (Adel) 171; 10. Dyson Heppell (Ess) 170.
Goals: 1. Jack Darling (WC) 381; 2. Tom Lynch (GC/Rich) 323; 3. Josh Jenkins (Ess/Adel/Geel) 296; 4. Charlie Dixon (GC/Port) 223; 5. Jamie Cripps (StK/WC) 211; 6. Paul Puopolo (Haw) 181; 7. Brandon Matera (GC/Frem) 170; 8. Isaac Smith (Haw) 162; Josh Caddy (GC/Geel/Rich) 160; 10. Luke Parker (Syd) 156.
Possessions: 1. Andrew Gaff (WC) 5316; 2. Luke Parker (Syd) 4540; 3. Isaac Smith (Haw) 4314; 4. Dyson Heppell 4262; 5. Dion Prestia (GC/Rich) 3838; 6. Luke Dahlhaus (WB/Geel) 3807; 7. Ed Curnow (Carl) 3584; 8. Shaun Atley (NM) 3499; 9. Brodie Smith (Adel) 3317; 10. Jeremy Howe (Melb/Coll) 3170.
Brownlow Votes: 1. Luke Parker (Syd) 94; 2. Andrew Gaff (WC) 92; 3. Dyson Heppell (Ess) 71; 4. Dion Prestia (GC/Rich) 39; 5. Luke Dahlhaus (WB/Geel) and Tom Lynch (GC/Rich) 35; 7. Jack Darling (WC) 29, 8. Harley Bennell (GC/Frem/Melb) 26, 9. Isaac Smith (Haw) and Jason Johannisen (WB) 25.
Parker, an All-Australian choice in 2016, is one of seven members of the Class of 2010 to have picked up this honour. The others are West Coast rookie pick Jeremy McGovern (2016, ’17, ’18 and ‘19), Gaff (2015 and ‘18), Heppell (2014), Brodie Smith (2014), Lynch (2016) and Darling (2019).
Winner of the Bob Skilton Medal as Swans Club Champion in 2014 and ‘17, runner-up in 2018 and 3rd in 2019, Parker shares with Lynch the distinction of being the only two-time winner of his club’s No.1 award. Gaff, Heppell, Dion Prestia and David Swallow each have one.
Parker’s four top three placings is second only among the Class of 2010 to Heppell’s six.
And indeed, the outstanding best and fairest record of Parker against the equivalent record of Gaff and Heppell, taken with picks #4 and #8, demonstrates what a bargain pick-up Parker was at #40.
Parker has had seven consecutive top 10 finishes from 2013. He’s gone 6-1-7-4-1-2-3.
Gaff has had eight consecutive top 10 finishes from 2012, going 5-8-4-1-3-6-5-4. And Heppell has had eight top 10 finishes in nine years from 2011 broken by a wipe in 2016 when he did not play a game. He’s gone 7-2-3-1-3-X-3-2-5.
In his second year as Swans co-captain, Parker is one six club captains from the 2010 draft alongside Heppell, Swallow, Lynch, Tom Jonas, and Steven May.
A premiership player in his second season in 2012, he is one of 14 premiership players from the 2010 draft. And his total of 18 finals appearances is third among the Class of 2010 behind Isaac Smith and his Hawthorn teammate Paul Puopolo (20).
Plus, Parker was the 2015 and 2016 winner of the AFLPA’s Most Courageous Player Award also won by Swans great Paul Kelly (1994, ’95, ’96, ’97 and 2000) and Brett Kirk (2006).
It’s been a wonderful career for Parker, a product of the Dandenong Stingrays in the Victorian Under 18 competition who had shared his sporting focus between football and basketball before deciding at 16 to focus on the Sherrin.
He won the Stingrays best and fairest as a bottom-age player in 2009 and was a TAC Cup Team of the Year choice in 2010, when he was a member of the Victorian Country side that won the Australian Under 18 Championship.
It was a side that included current AFL stars Heppell, Dylan Shiel and Devon Smith (Ess), Jeremy Cameron (GWS), Adam Treloar and Taylor Adams (Coll), Luke Dahlhaus (Geel) and Atley.
It also included the player the Swans drafted before Parker at #21 – Jed Lamb. He played 12 games for Sydney, 10 games for GWS and 44 games for Carlton.
In the 2011 AFL Guide, where Parker’s first brief player profile appeared, it read: “A ferocious competitor, he is a strongly-built midfielder who works in and under packs. Takes a strong mark for his size and can also play as a small forward. He has good endurance and is expected to develop into an understudy for veteran Jude Bolton”.
How accurate it has proved to be. And no wonder Parker inherited the #26 guernsey made famous by Team of the Century member Stevie Wright, who wore it in every one of his 246 games and ranks 7th all-time in the AFL behind Adelaide’s Mark Bickley (272), Geelong’s Tom Hawkins (260), St Kilda and North Melbourne midfielder Nick Dal Santo (259), Hawthorn and Brisbane wingman and ex-Swans coach Rodney Eade (259), Collingwood’s Gavin Brown (254) and level with Adelaide’s Richard Douglas.
Swans fans didn’t have to wait long for a taste of what was to come. In his debut in Round 8, 2011 against Port Adelaide at the SCG, Parker was Sydney’s starting substitute. He played only 16% game time in a 62-point win but had seven possessions and a goal assist.
Extrapolate that out to something like the 84% game time of Jude Bolton and the 82% of Josh Kennedy and it’s 35 possessions. Bolton had 33 for three Brownlow votes and Kennedy 31 for one vote behind Adam Goodes’ two votes for his 27 possessions and two goals.
It’s a stretch, of course, but a clue nevertheless to the statistical domination that was to follow.
So durable has Parker been that since his debut he has missed only 17 games. And only one since Round 1, 2016.
He was dropped twice in his first season in 2011, playing four NEAFL games in one stretch and sitting out as an emergency in another round, and has only missed through injury since then. Six games with a shoulder in 2012, three home-and-away games and two finals with an ankle in 2015 and Round 14 last year, when he was a late withdrawal with a groin strain.
Parker on Saturday will become the 33rd member of the Swans 200-Game Club – and the fourth youngest at 27 years and 253 days behind Dan Hannebery (27/98), Tony Morwood (27/111) and Adam Goodes (27/182).
In a twist that will make for a good story in retirement, Parker will be just the second of the 33 Swans 200-gamers to celebrate his double century at a neutral venue on the Gold Coast against West Coast after the originally scheduled Round 5 Sunday clash with Melbourne at the SCG was scrapped due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The first was Vic Belcher, the club’s first 200-gamer who celebrated his milestone in the five-point 1918 grand final win at the MCG over Collingwood, then based at the old Victoria Park.
Parker will be hoping to follow the last six newcomers to Sydney’s 200-Club who all celebrated with a win – Ted Richards, Heath Grundy, Kieren Jack, Kennedy, Nick Smith and Hannebery.
And who was the other player to rank top 10 in each of the seven statistical categories in the PPMP?
You shouldn’t really need to be told … it was Josh Kennedy.
Kennedy ranked #5 in games, #4 in tackles, #9 in goals, #2 in contested possessions, #4 in Brownlow votes, #1 in clearances and #2 in contested possessions. And he has averaged 28.4 possessions (15.2 contested possessions), 0.60 goals, 5.7 tackles, 6.8 clearances per game. And 0.71 Brownlow votes.
The statistics from the Parker Performance Management Package, with the top 10 in games, possessions, contested possessions, clearances, tackles, goals, and Brownlow Medal votes by AFL midfielders since Round 1 2014 are:
GAMES: 1. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) 143; 2. Luke Parker (Syd) 142; 3. Dustin Martin (Rich) 141; 4. Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris); 5. Josh Kennedy (Syd), Joel Selwood (Geel) and Luke Shuey (WC) 139; 8. Andrew Gaff (WC) 138; 9. Ben Cunnington (NM) 137; 10. Scott Pendlebury (Coll) 134.
POSSESSIONS: 1. Andrew Gaff (WC) 4043; 2. Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris) 4034; 3. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) 3997; 4. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 3940; 5. Dustin Martin (Rich) 3830; 6. Jack Macrae (WB) 3805; 7. Scott Pendlebury (Coll) 3744; 8. Adam Treloar (GWS/Coll) 3721; 9. Luke Parker (Syd) 3604; 10. Joel Selwood (Geel) 3515.
CONTESTED POSSESSIONS: 1. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) 2234; 2. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 2106; 3. Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris) 1919; 4. Ben Cunnington (NM) 1896; 5. Luke Parker (Syd) 1824; 6. Joel Selwood (Geel) 1723; 7. Nat Fyfe (Frem) 1700; 8. Patrick Cripps (Carl) 1623; 9. Rory Sloane (Adel) 1590; 10. Dustin Martin (Rich) 1569.
CLEARANCES: 1. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 944; 2. Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris) 915; 3. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) 910; 4. Ben Cunnington (NM) 901; 5. Luke Shuey (WC) 852; 6. Joel Selwood (Geel) 811; 7. Luke Parker (Syd) 809; 8. Patrick Cripps (Carl) 787; 9. Callan Ward (GWS) 787; 10. Nat Fyfe (Frem) 720.
TACKLES: 1. Rory Sloane (Adel) 818; 2. Dayne Zorko (Bris) 806; 3. Luke Parker (Syd) 798; 4. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 787; 5. Joel Selwood (Geel) 743; 6. Scott Pendlebury (Coll) 724; 7. Luke Shuey (WC) 722; 8. Tom Rockliff (Bris/Port) 711; 9. Zach Merrett (Ess) 701; 10. Adam Treloar (GWS/Coll) 696.
GOALS: 1. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) and Dustin Martin (Rich) 161; 3. Dayne Zorko (Bris) 144; 4. Luke Parker (Syd) 121; 5. Marcus Bontempelli (WB) 118; 6. Gary Ablett (GC/Geel) 105; 7. Nat Fyfe (Frem) 98; 8. Mitch Duncan (Geel) 87; 9. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 83; 10. Luke Shuey (WC) 79.
BROWNLOW VOTES: 1. Patrick Dangerfield (Adel/Geel) 155; 2. Dustin Martin (Rich) 137; 3. Nat Fyfe (Frem) 124; 4. Josh Kennedy (Syd) 98; 5. Scott Pendlebury (Coll) 92; 6. Luke Parker (Syd) 89; 7. Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris) 88; 8. Marcus Bontempelli (WB) 87; 9. Joel Selwood (Geel) and Andrew Gaff (WC) 82.
