Sam Mayes will be able to walk into the Brisbane Lions' locker room next week and put his gear in his locker without looking quite so anxiously at the last name printed in front of him.
For eight weeks the name ‘Cheynee Stiller’ on Mayes’ #32 locker has been an unwanted reminder that he has been stranded on 99 games since Round 4.
It is on Mayes’ locker because Stiller was the last player to play 100 games for the Club in jumper #32, as per a Club tradition to recognise 100 gamers in this fashion.
Next week, or soon thereafter, the name Mayes will go in underneath Stiller after he was recalled to the Lions side to play his 100th game against Essendon at the Gabba on Sunday.
Ironically, Stiller is the only Brisbane player who had to wait longer than Mayes to go from 99 games to 100.
He was stuck on 99 games for 13 weeks in 2012, having been dropped after playing his 99th game in a 91-point loss to Carlton at the Gabba in Round 2 and made to wait until Round 19 to play his 100th game against Sydney at the SCG.
Mayes suffered a similar fate after the Lions’ loss to Richmond in Round 4.
The other Brisbane player to endure a long wait for a big milestone game was Scott McIvor.
He was stranded on 199 games for 11 weeks in 1997 after being injured in his 199th game in Round 5 against Fremantle at Subiaco. Not until Round 19 against North Melbourne at the MCG did he reach his 200th game.
Mayes, drafted by the Lions with pick number eight in the 2011 AFL Draft, will be the seventh player from the class of 2011 to play 100 AFL games.
Port Adelaide vice-captain Ollie Wines leads this group with 117 games, followed by Western Bulldogs midfielder Jackson Macrae (110), Richmond utility Nick Vlastuin (105), GWS wingman Lachie Whitfield (101) and Essendon pair Joe Daniher and Jake Stringer (100).
Daniher, a father/son pick to Essendon, has been stuck on 100 games since Round 7 due to injury, while Stringer, traded by the Bulldogs to the Bombers this year, posted his 100th game last week.
Each of the 100-gamers from the 2011 Draft have come from the top 10 picks who were:
- Lachie Whitfield – 101 games – GWS
- Jono O’Rourke – 18 games – GWS/Hawthorn
- Lachie Plowman – 71 games – GWS/Carlton
- Jimmy Toumpas – 37 games – Melbourne/Port Adelaide
- Jake Stringer – 100 games – Western Bulldogs/Essendon
- Jackson Macrae – 110 games – Western Bulldogs
- Ollie Wines – 117 games – Port Adelaide
- Sam Mayes – 99 games – Brisbane Lions
- Nick Vlastuin – 105 games – Richmond
- Joe Daniher – 100 games – Essendon
Mayes was the first of three players chosen by the Lions in the 2011 Draft. Marco Paparone, stuck on 55 games, was selection number 23, and Michael Close, delisted at the end of last season after 27 games, was selection number 32.
Mayes is the sixth player and the third 100-gamer to wear jumper #32 for Brisbane.
Shaun Hart, Norm Smith Medallist in the 2001 Grand final, holds the Club record in #32 at 273 games spread over the Bears and Lions eras, while Stiller played an even 100.
Leigh Rysywk wore #32 in his only game in 2005, while in the Bears era jumper #32 was worn by Peter Smith (4 games) Tony Lynn (6 games) before Hart.
Three players wore #32 for more than 100 games at Fitzroy.
The first was Clen Denning, who played 159 games for the Club from 1938-47 after three years and 18 games at Carlton, while Russell Crow played 158 games in #32 from 1960-64 and 1968-73,
Jason Baldwin was the third 100-gamer and the last player to wear #32 for Fitzroy, doing so 125 times from 1989-96 before two games at Richmond in 1997 following the Fitzroy/Brisbane merger.
He played in the last Fitzroy game in Melbourne in Round 21 1996 against Richmond at the
