The term ‘ball magnet’ is used much too loosely in AFL football, but in the case of Tom Rockliff it really is appropriate.
In Brisbane Football Club history 295 players have played a total 672 games since 1987.
The first 152 games featured 20 players and the next 93 games featured 21 players. And since 1998 it’s been 22 players wearing the club jumper each game.
So, that’s a total of 14,387 times that the statisticians have recorded how many possessions a player has had on any given day.
Only 13 times have they recorded a Brisbane player having 40 possessions or more.
And of those 13 times Rockliff has been the target of this numeric adulation no less than eight times.
The skipper was at his ball-winning best against Carlton last Saturday, collecting a club record 48 possessions.
This surpassed his own previous club best of 47 possessions posted against the Gold Coast Suns at the Gabba in 2014.
The 123-game veteran first topped 40 possessions in his 52nd game in 2012. He had an even 40.
Then in 2014 he had hauls of 40, 43, 45 (twice) and in 2015 he had another 45.
Can he do it again this week against Fremantle at the Gabba? Don’t discount it because he’s had back-to-back 40’s before.
In fact he had three 40’s in a row in the last three games of 2014 - against Adelaide (40), Fremantle (43) and Collingwood (45).
And he’s twice previously taken Fremantle for 40-plus – in Round 14 and in Round 22 of 2014.
Others in the Brisbane 40-Possession Club have been David Bain (2), Michael McLean (1), Luke Power (1) and Pearce Hanley (1).
In the Fitzroy era, in which possessions statistics were kept from 1967-96, eight players had a total of 12 40-possession games.
Garry Wilson had four of them, including the Fitzroy record of 45 possessions against Collingwood at Waverley in 1978.
Others in this elite category were Mathew Armstrong (2), Brendan McCormack, John Murphy, Simon Atkins, Graeme Allan, Paul Roos and Jason Baldwin.
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