Will Ashcroft has become the youngest player in Brisbane Lions history to record a 30-possession game and grabbed undeniable bragging rights over his famous 300-gamer father.
Still 43 days short of his 19th birthday and playing just his second AFL game, Ashcroft Jnr was 78 days quicker and 39 games faster than Marcus Ashcroft.
The boom father/son recruit became the first Brisbane player this season to top 30 when he chalked up a team-high 31 possessions in the drama-charged Gabba win over Melbourne on Friday night.
It is a milestone he will never forget, posting his 30th touch in the last minute of a final quarter that went 69min 54sec after a power outage caused a 38-minute delay.
It is the longest recorded quarter in AFL history for a game played on one day.
The outrider was a Saturday night game in 1996 at Waverley between Essendon and St.Kilda which was stopped due to a power failure in the third quarter and, when power could not be restored quickly, was completed on the following Tuesday night.
Ironically, Marcus Ashcroft’s first 30-possession game in his 41st outing in 1991 also has a place in Brisbane club history, albeit for different reasons.
It was Round 20 when the then Brisbane Bears copped a 101-point hiding from Collingwood at Carrara in which Peter Daicos, father of current Magpies stars Josh and Nick, kicked 13 goals. It’s the most ever kicked against a Brisbane side.
Will Ashcroft was no less than 473 days younger than Tom Cutler, the club’s previous youngest 30-possession winner. Cutler was 20 years 65 days when he reached this mark in his eighth game in 2015.
Among players who have begun their AFL career at Brisbane, Ashcroft Jnr is third quickest to a 30-possession game after Danny Noonan (1991) and Bradd Dalziell (2008) topped 30 in their first AFL game. Noonan, recruited from Tasmania, was 22 years 128 days old, and Dalziell, from Perth, was 21 years 126 days.
Other Brisbane players to top 30 in their first 10 games have been Zac O’Brien (5th game in 2014), Nathan Buckley (6th game in 1993), Tom Rockliff (8th game in 2010) and Dayne Zorko (8th game in 2012).
Ashcroft is also the youngest and quickest Queenslander to post a 30-possession game. He slots in two games ahead of ex-Redland junior Adam Oxley, who had 33 possessions in his fourth game at Collingwood in 2015 and is 237 days younger than Dayne Beams when Beams reached this mark for the first time at Collingwood in 2009.
Ashcroft, too, is set to claim a place in club history on Brownlow Medal night this year, when it will be a major shock if he does not poll in the votes.
If so he will slot in behind three Brisbane players who polled on debut – inaugural Bears captain Mark Mickan, WA draftee Brad Rowe and triple premiership player Darryl White.
Mickan polled two votes when he had 18 possessions and 20 hit-outs in the Bears’ 33-point win North Melbourne at the MCG in their first game in Round 1 1987.
Rowe, drafted from East Fremantle with pick #5 in the 1989 AFL Draft, earned one vote for 14 possessions and two goals on debut in a 59-point Bears win over Richmond at Carrara in Round 1 1990 – the first of just 14 games in two years for the club in before he added 51 games at Collingwood (1992-95) and eight games at Fremantle (1996).
And White polled three votes on debut when he had 13 disposals and nine hit-outs as an undersized ruckman in a 24-point Bears loss to Carlton at Carrara in Round 1 1992.
Four other players who debuted in Brisbane colors have polled inside their first 10 games for the club – Dayne Zorko (5th game), Matthew Simpson (7th), Chris Scott (9th) and Michael Voss (10th).