Daniel Rich is poised to grab a slice of history and join a truly elite group as the Brisbane Lions open the 2022 AFL season against Port Adelaide at the Gabba on Saturday night.

Rich will play his 14^th Round 1 match to equal the club record of Brownlow Medallist Simon Black.

Having never missed a season-opener since his debut in 2009, the 31-year-old West Australian will also better the club record for most consecutive Round 1 games, held by Marcus Ashcroft at 13.

And, with just 14 possessions against Port, he will become just the sixth Lions player to top 5000 possessions for the club.

It is part of a statistical explosion for Rich, who last year climbed to ninth on the club’s all-time games list at 246 and became the 17^th player to post 100 Lions wins.

Black missed only two Round 1 games in his 16-season career – in 1998 before his debut and in 2005, after he was suspended for three matches in the 2004 grand final.

Ashcroft, who debuted in 1989, played the first game of every year from 1991 (when the club’s first game was actually Round 2) until his last season in 2003.

Michael Voss, Nigel Lappin, Darryl White and Shaun Hart also have played 13 season-openers, with Justin Leppitsch (12), Luke Power (11), Jed Adcock, Daniel Bradshaw, Ash McGrath and Daniel Merrett (10) also in double-figures.

Rich will join elite company in the 5000 Club, with only Black (7580), Voss (6143), Lappin (5911), Power (5884) and Ashcroft (5848) having topped this mark in Brisbane colours, and only 154 players across all clubs have reached 5000 career possessions in 57 years since the introduction of possession counts in 1965.

Also this week, fitness permitting, Dayne Zorko will skipper the Lions in Round 1 for the fifth time on Saturday night,  leaving only Voss (9), Jonathan Brown (7) and Roger Merrett (6) ahead of him.

And Chris Fagan will coach his sixth season-opener to move to outright second on the club list behind only Leigh Matthews (10). He will go ahead of Robert Walls (5) and Voss (5).

While Round 1 games are not worth any more than every other home-and-away game, there’s always something special about them.

Every player desperately wants to play to get into the new campaign after a summer of hard physical work, skill improvement, game plan analysis and strategy.

Hopes are high as everyone starts with a clean slate. The spotlight turns to new faces and up-and-comers looking to elevate their performance. And the old-timers, who have been through it all before, step up into top gear.

In 35 years in the AFL Brisbane have put together a 15-20 win/loss record in Round 1 games. They are 11-7 in home games to start the season and 4-13 away.

They have only met Port Adelaide once in Round 1 before in a 2001 clinker at Football Park. Up by 22 points at half time and down by 19 points at three-quarter time, they pulled to within a point 10 minutes from time through goals to Leppitsch (2) and Alastair Lynch, but Port got home by six points after a late Gavin Wanganeen goal.

Overall, Brisbane’s best Round 1 record is against Sydney (3-1), West Coast (3-2) and StKilda (2-2). They are 1-0 against Essendon, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Richmond, 1-2 against North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, and 1-3 against Hawthorn.

They are yet to beat six teams in Round 1 matches – Adelaide, Fremantle, Geelong and Port (0-1), Carlton and Collingwood (0-2).

Brisbane’s 35 season-openers have been split across 13 different venues. They are 10-4 at the Gabba, having won seven Round 1 games in a row from 1999-2010, and 2-3 at Carrara.

They are 0-2 at the old Subiaco Oval in Perth, 0-1 at the SCG in Sydney, 0-2 at the old Football Park in Adelaide, 0-1 in Launceston and a combined 2-8 in Melbourne – 2-2 at the MCG, 0-2 at Docklands and 0-1 at Kardinia Park (Geelong) and three Melbourne grounds not used in the AFL – Princes Park, Waverley and Moorabbin.

Black polled four times in the Brownlow Medal in Round 1 for a total of 10 votes to head the club in both statistics. Power polled three times for seven votes, (7), Voss twice for six votes, and Lappin and Jared Brennan twice each for five votes.

Current players on the Round 1 vote board are Rich (3), Zorko (3), Hugh McCluggage (2) and Lachie Neale (1).

Black also holds the club record for most possessions in a Round 1 game with an equal career-best 39 against Hawthorn at the Gabba in 2007.

Tom Rockliff had 37 points in 2017 against Gold Coast at Carrara, and Travis Johnstone 37 in 2009 against West Coast at the Gabba, when Luke Power had 35. Scott McIvor also had 35 against Richmond at Carrara in 1990.

Ex-captains Roger Merrett and Jonathan Brown share the record for most Brisbane goals in Round 1. Merrett backed a half dozen against North Melbourne at the MCG in 1993, and Brown six against West Coast at Subiaco in 2008.

Brown also kicked five goals in Round 1 in 2000 to match the haul of Brenton Phillips (1987), Hart (1996), White (1999), Jarrod Molloy (2000) and Leppitsch (2002).

Get around Richy and the boys as they look to extend their Round 1 Gabba winning record. Go All In Now.