Sunday debutant Henry Smith is #351 on the all-time Brisbane playing list and #1489 on the all-Lions list, which dates back to Fitzroy in 1897. He’s #13,166 on the AFL player list all-time and is #128 on an exclusive group within the playing fraternity ..  the “All-Smith Team”.

Plus, to conclude one of football’s great trivia exercises, he is the equal tallest Smith all-time, the second Henry Smith, and one game into his career he is the most successful Henry Smith in the AFL, ending the 118-year rule of his only predecessor.

AFL records show there was a Henry Smith who played one game for Melbourne in Round 11 1906. He was originally from Brunswick, was born 25 August 1882, was 179cm tall and weighed 80kg, and died aged 74 on 25 February 1957.

His only game was on Saturday 21 July 1906 at Lake Oval when Melbourne, sitting on the bottom of the ladder, took on fifth-placed South Melbourne, who debuted a Jim Smith.

It was six years before the introduction of jumper numbers in 1912 in an era in which the only statistics they kept were the score and goal-kickers. South won by 56 points and Henry Smith did not kick a goal, so his career record reads “one game – one loss”.

After Brisbane’s stunning two-point Gabba win over ladder-leaders Sydney on Sunday the 2024-version of Henry Smith, forgetting all the trimmings, has a career record “one game, one win”.

And at 206cm, the Woodville-West Torrens junior drafted by the Lions with pick #48 in the 2020 National Draft, joins ex-Gold Coast and Geelong ruckman Zac Smith as the tallest Smith in AFL history.

The next tallest Smith at 201cm is ex-Lions ruckman Archie Smith, whose namesake was a member of the very first Collingwood side in 1897 and as the only Smith in Round 1 1897 is the first recorded Smith in the AFL.

Having also played in Collingwood’s first official game in 1892 in the VFA, Archie Smith #1 played 89 VFL games with the Pies from 1897-1902, including the 1901 grand final loss, topped the Collingwood goal-kicking in their first four years and seven times overall , and was VFL leading goal-kicker in 1898.

Records show there are now 154 Smiths listed on the all-time playing lists of the AFL clubs, but with 26 who played for two clubs that means 128 unique Smiths.

Every AFL club except Port Adelaide has fielded a Smith, with North Melbourne (18), Sydney (15), StKilda (15), Richmond (15), Melbourne (14), Fitzroy (13) and Fitzroy (11) with most.

Brisbane have played three Smiths – Henry, Archie and Peter Smith, an ex-North Melbourne defender who was a member of the inaugural Bears squad in 1987 who played just four games.

Fitzroy fielded 13 Smiths but only three who played more than 20 games – Chris Smith (163 games 1973-82), Len Smith (76 games 1937-43, 1945) and 1906 grand final team member Bob Smith (74 games 1901, 1903, 1906-09).

There are 23 Smiths who have played 100 AFL games, headed by the Western Bulldogs’ Rohan Smith (300), four-time Hawthorn/Geelong premiership player Isaac Smith (280) and Adelaide’s Brodie Smith (262), and 10 100-goal Smiths headed the greatest Smith of all-time, Norm Smith.

Coach of the AFL Team of the Century and an AFL Hall of Fame legend, Norm Smith kicked 5762 goals for Melbourne and Fitzroy. Rohan Smith (254), StKilda Brownlow Medallist Ross Smith (230) and Isaac Smith (205) also topped 200 goals.

Wearing #25 at the Lions after giving up his original #19 to 2023 recruit Jack Gunston, Henry Smith is a product of the Covid draft of 2020 which closed out a year where a lot of potential draftees had played little or no football.

Originally from suburban Blackwood in Adelaide, he’d played Colts with SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens and had played in the 2019 AFL Futures Game at the MCG on Grand Final day.

He was Brisbane’s third pick in the 2020 draft behind Blake Coleman at #24 and Harry Sharp at #43, and waited longer than any draftee in Brisbane history to make his AFL debut.

The only other player to wait until his fourth year on the list was 2001-02-03 premiership hero Clark Keating, but he was from a different era. With fellow Gold Coaster Brent Green he was signed by the Bears as a 15-year-old in 1992 and debuted in 1996 after Green had done likewise in 1995.

Jack Payne, Connor Ballenden, Sam Sheldon, Shane Morrison and Luke Weller debuted in their third year.

Smith is Brisbane’s third draftee from WWT to play at AFL level, following 2002 premiership player Aaron Shattock, who was pick #45 in 1998, and Jared Polec, pick #5 in 2010.

Also drafted from WWT is Lions Head of Personal Excellence & Wellbeing Andrew Crowell. He was pick #12 in the 1999 Pre-Season Draft to Adelaide, and played 44 games with the Crows from 2000-03 before building an extensive career in football off-field.