Among 563 Swans players since the introduction of possession counts in 1965 only 98 have had 30 possessions in a game. Or 17.41%. Only 16 players or 2.84% have had 40 possessions in a game. And 50? It’s the ultra-exclusive “0.18% Club”. One member only. Greg Williams.

It was 32 years ago today, Sunday 13 August 1989, when the Swans hosted St.Kilda at the SCG.

Going into Round 19 with an 8-10 record the Swans were seventh on the ladder and among five teams chasing he fifth and last finals spot.

With four games to play they were two games plus percentage behind fifth-placed Collingwood and sixth-placed Fitzroy, percentage up on eighth-placed North Melbourne and half a game up on ninth-placed Carlton.

St Kilda, 10^th on the ladder at 6-12 and coming off eight consecutive losses, should always have been ‘gettable’ after the Swans had knocked off Collingwood by four points at Victoria Park in Round 18. But the overall mission was going to take something extra-special.

As it turned out even a 4-0 finish would not have been enough because Collingwood won their last three after a Round 19 loss.

But in the 400^th game overall of the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans, Williams produced something extra extra-special. And more.

The 25-year-old ex-Bendigo midfielder known as ‘Diesel’, who had won the 1986 Brownlow Medal in his first season with the Swans after two seasons with Geelong, was playing his 112^th game overall and his 78^th in the #2 Swans jumper.

After 38 possessions, a goal and three Brownlow votes on debut for Geelong in 1984 he’d averaged 28.3 possessions through 111 games and topped 30 possessions an even 50 times. He’d gone 40+ five times, with a career-best of 42.

Having followed coach Tom Hafey from Geelong to Sydney in 1986, he’d posted six games of 30+ through 11 games in 1989 and averaged 26.5 possessions despite a five-match suspension.

By the end of a tough campaign he would finish a whisker second in a four-way battle for the League’s highest game average. It was Hawthorn’s Terry Wallace (27.9) from Williams (27.8), Sydney teammate Barry Mitchell (27.4) and North Melbourne’s Anthony Rock (27.0).

And despite playing only 17 games and being ineligible for the Brownlow Medal he would poll 16 votes to finish equal third in the count behind Geelong’s Paul Couch (22) and Hawthorn’s John Platten (20). Couch had played 22 games and Platten 20.

But for Williams, Round 19 was all about keeping the finals campaign alive against St.Kilda. And, albeit retrospectively, paying homage to future Swans Team of the Century teammate Tony Morwood in his 229^th and ultimately last game.

Some may have said it was payback time, too. The Swans had lost to 13^th-placed Richmond and 12^th-placed West Coast in a 2-3 run while Williams was suspended after a Round 11 incident with Carlton’s David Rhys Jones.

The pair had clashed heavily, leaving Williams with a bad shoulder and Rhys-Jones a broken haw. Both players were cited, with Williams copping a five-match suspension as Rhys-Jones, a former Swan, was found not guilty on two charges and given a suspended sentence on a third charge.

Williams had returned from his ‘holiday’ with 36 and 32 possessions in wins over Brisbane and Collingwood in Rounds 17-18, but his Round 19 performance against St.Kilda was something else. He had 53 possessions – a League record at the time.

Only twice previously had any player in AFL history topped 50. Collingwood centreman Barry Price had 52 at Victoria Park in Round 4 1971, and three weeks later at the same ground his 20-year-old teammate John Greening had an even 50.

It was a statistician’s dream. Price had 29 kicks and 23 handballs, and Greening 30 kicks and 20 handballs. Neither kicked a goal to supplement their possession feast.

Fast forward 18 years to the Swans quadruple century game in 1989 and Williams had 25 kicks and 28 handballs. And to top off one of the truly great individual performances in League history – with or without statistics – he also kicked six goals. Another career-best.

Thirty-two years on, with statisticians now in their 57^th year on the job, Williams’ stunning performance ranks equal second all-time.

Tom Mitchell, ex-Swan turned Hawthorn Brownlow Medallist, set the record with 54 possessions in 2018 after Gary Ablett Jnr, then playing with Gold Coast, had equalled the Williams mark of 53 in 2012. Mitchell also had an even 50 twice in 2017 and 2018.

Earlier, Collingwood’s Tony Shaw had 50 in 1991, supplementing his performance with a goal. Williams aside, Shaw is the only member of the 50-Plus Club to have hit the goals column in the same day.

Williams finished the 1989 season with two more 30-possession games, and when he left the Swans three years later to take up a big offer from Carlton he’d had 51 games of 30+ in 107 Swans games, including four games of 40+ and his extraordinary 53.

Despite his limited time in the Harbour City Williams, now 56, sits fourth on the Swans list of 30+ games behind only Josh Kennedy (82), Barry Mitchell (61) and Dan Hannebery (57).

More simply, Williams topped 30 possessions in 47.8% of his Swans games to head Barry Mitchell (35.9%), Gerard Healy (35.8%), Kennedy (31.6), Tom Mitchell (29.2%) and Hannebery (27.4%).

Williams would finish his 250-game AFL career with 96 games of 30+. Or a 30-game strike rate of 28.4%. This included 14 games of 40+ and his 53 to rank sixth all-time across the League for games of 30 possessions or more.

Ablett Jnr heads the list overall, having topped 30 no less than 126 times in his 357 games (35.3%), with 21 games of 40+ and one 50, with Hawthorn great Sam Mitchell second. He had 121 games of 30+ in 329 games (36.8%), with three games of 40+.

Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury has 112 games of 30+ in 334 games (33.5%), with one 40+, while completing the top five are St.Kilda’s Robert Harvey, with 118 games of 30+ in 383 games (30.8%) and 10 games of 40+, and Collingwood’s Dane Swan 108 games of 30+ (41.8%) from 258 games, with 13 games of 40+.

And among 152 players who have amassed 5000 possessions or more, the Williams game average of 26.88 is fourth behind only the current trio of Adam Treloar (29.48), Jack Macrae (28.49) and Joel Selwood (28.35).

The Williams game average of 26.88 possessions sees him fifth by a whisker from Dane Swan (26.85), with Lachie Neale (26.77), Andrew Gaff (26.61), Sam Mitchell (26.40), Scott Pendlebury (26.23) and Matt Priddis (26.16) completing the list.

That despite the fact that he was from an entirely different era. Having retired in 1997 he had finished his career before every other member of the top 10 had even started. Very exclusive indeed.