By Peter Blucher.
Ben Keays has stamped one of Queensland football’s great ‘second chance’ careers, last weekend playing his 100th consecutive game with the Adelaide Crows.
It’s like the fortunes of the former Queensland Under-18 captain and dual Under-18 All-Australian did a complete big-flap during the 81-day shutdown of the AFL competition in the Covid season of 2020.
The former Morningside junior and Gregory Terrace graduate was the second player picked up by Brisbane in the 2015 National Draft when they matched a bid on him from the Western Bulldogs at #24 after they’d taken Eric Hipwood at #14.
It was regarded as a double coup for the Lions after Keays had won the Hunter-Harrison Medal as the best player at division two at the Under-18 championships in 2015, and was one of three players chosen for the second year in a row in the All-Australian side.
The other two were Rhys Mathieson, who is playing this year at Wilston-Grange after 72 games with Brisbane from 2016-23, and Darcy Parish, a 157-gamer at Essendon.
Keays played 30 games from 2016-19 with the Lions and was a member of the club’s 2017-19 NEAFL premiership sides, but managed only two AFL games in each of 2018-19.
He was delisted by the Lions in October 2019, and after being overlooked in the National Draft later that year had to wait until the rookie draft to be thrown a career life-line by the Crows, who at the time had just appointed Matthew Nicks as coach.
He wasn’t selected by the Crows for Round 1 2020 on 21 March, but when the competition resumed on 13 June after the Covid shutdown he debuted for the club in the Round 2 showdown against Port Adelaide.
He had only six possessions in a 75-point loss despite playing 87% game time, but gradually found his feet despite losses in his first 12 games, and at the end of the shortened season he finished fifth in the Adelaide Best & Fairest and won the Players’ Trademark Award.
He has not missed a game since, and has become one of the leaders at the club. He was runner-up in the B&F in 2021, was added to the leadership group in 2022, when he was third in the B&F, and last year tied for 8th.
He has filled different roles with the Crows, averaging 27.4 possessions as a prolific ball-winning midfielder in 2012-22, and has kicked 44 goals in 2023-24 since coach Nicks deployed him more as a tagger and a defensive forward.
In Round 23 last year against Sydney at Adelaide Oval, Keays kicked one of the most famous ‘non-goals’ in recent AFL history.
Inside the last 60 seconds, Keays thought he had put his side in front, wheeling away in celebration before he was shocked to learn the goal umpire had indicated the ball hit the post and signalled a behind.
In a massive controversy, it was later confirmed the ball had missed the post and should have been a goal, but it was too late. Sydney had run down the clock and won by a point to deny Adelaide what would have been the first finals appearance since 2017.
It was the Keays non-goal which prompted a major overhaul of the AFL review system.
The now 27-year-old had 24 possessions and a goal against St Kilda in Round 18 last Saturday in his 100th consecutive game for the Crows, breaking the club record held previously by Scott Thompson at 99.
He joined Marcus Ashcroft and Charlie Cameron as Queensland members of the 100 Consecutive Games Club.
Ashcroft’s 170 games in a row from 1992-2000 is 11th on the all-time AFL list, which is headed by Melbourne’s Jim Stynes at 244 but under threat from Brisbane draftee turned Collingwood ironman Jack Crisp at 231.
Cameron has played 135 games in a row, having not missed since Round 1 2019, but is in danger of seeing his unbroken run ended by the tribunal after a tackle on West Coast’s Liam Duggan last Sunday.
He was charged by the Match Review Officer with careless conduct, severe impact and high contact after his tackle put the Eagles co-captain out of the game with concussion, and offered a three-match ban without the option of an early plea.
The Lions will challenge the penalty in a repeat of an incident earlier in the season when they successfully overturned had an initial one-match ban for a dumping tackle on Melbourne’s Jake Lever in Round 5.
