Cameron raises the bat after bringing up ton

By Peter Blucher

Question: What does Brisbane Lions excitement machine Charlie Cameron have in common with former Australian cricket ace Matthew Hayden and former Australian rugby captain John Eales?

Answer One: They are all products of Marist College Ashgrove.

And Answer Two: They will soon all be members of the Queensland 100 Club.

Hayden played 101 Sheffield Shield matches for Queensland in addition to 103 Tests for Australia, and Eales played 115 Super Rugby games for Queensland on top of 86 Tests for Australia.

On Sunday Cameron, the one-time anonymous Queenslander, will play his 100^th AFL game.

Cameron will post his ton on Sunday afternoon as the Lions, fourth on the AFL ladder, take on seventh-placed Port Adelaide in a massive game at Adelaide Oval.

It is a century that two years ago might have passed unnoticed because it wasn’t until Cameron was traded to Brisbane from the Adelaide Crows that AFL statisticians became aware of his heritage.

Until then he was considered a West Australian product after he was drafted from Newman, a town in the Pilbara region of WA 1186km north of Perth, via WAFL club Swan Districts.

Drafted by the Crows with selection #7 in the 2014 Rookie Draft, he played 73 games for Adelaide from 2014-2017, including the 2017 grand final.

He was well-known to Lions fans, earning a Rising Star nomination for a standout performance against Brisbane in Round 13 2015, when he kicked a goal and had three goal assists, five tackles and seven inside 50s.

He backed it up in Round 9 2017 when he kicked four goals in a blistering third quarter against the Lions, and flew high over a pack from a Mark of the Year contender.

But it wasn’t until the 2017 off-season that he went from being a challenging opponent to a Lions favorite after he sought and secured a trade to Brisbane.

Why? He wanted to come home.

What? Yes, as the Lions quickly learned, Cameron was a Queenslander.

Like Greg Norman, Pat Rafter and Simon Black, he was born in Mt.Isa. He attended primary school on Mornington Island before moving to Brisbane to attend Marist College Ashgrove.

As a schoolboy he played baseball, rugby union and rugby league at high levels, and played a handful of games of Australian football. He even spent six months in the Lions Academy, although he could not have made a big impression because nobody seemed to remember him.

At the end of 2011, aged 17, he moved with his family to Newman and was quickly forgotten.

But Cameron had never forgotten his roots. And when he made his way to Brisbane and news of his heritage started to break he was asked specifically if he considered himself a Queensland.

Absolutely he did, said the now 25-year-old speedster, who was traded from Adelaide to Brisbane in exchange for selection #12 in the 2018 National Draft, used by Adelaide to pick up Darcy Fogarty.

The football historians quickly re-calculated a few things, and added Cameron to the list of Queenslanders to play in the AFL, which now numbers 180, and possibly 181 if the Lions Jack Payne survives the final selection cut to make his debut on Sunay.

Cameron will become the 48^th Queenslander to play 100 AFL games after Ray Smith, a one-time rugby league star played 100 games with Essendon and Melbourne in the 1970’s, was the first.

Cameron will be the 15^th-youngest and will rank 6^th in goals for all players after 100 games.

Compiling the 100-game statistics is an interesting exercise and a reminder of just how good Michael Voss and Jason Dunstall in their first phase of their careers, and why they are Queensland Hall of Fame legends.

Voss was the youngest Queensland 100-gamer at 22 years 286 days, had most Brownlow Medal votes with 43, was 4^th in possessions despite his youth, and 11^th in goals despite playing primarily in the midfield.

Dunstall ranks 2^nd in Brownlow votes, equal with Nick Riewoldt and just two behind Voss, but more stunning were his win tally and his goals in his first 100 games.

The former Coorparoo star won 82 of his first 100 games, and kicked a staggering 429 goals – more than twice as many as 2^nd-ranked Kurt Tippett (182) and 3^rd-ranked Riewoldt (181).

Top 10 in each category are:-

YOUNGEST: 1. Michael Voss, 2. Marcus Ashcroft, 3. Jason Akermanis, 4. Nick Riewoldt, 5. Scott McIvor, 6. Gavin Crosisca, 7. Jarrod Harbrow, 8. David Hale, 9. Dayne Beams, 10. Sam Gilbert.

POSSESSIONS: 1. Dayne Beams, 2. Scott McIvor, 3, Dayne Zorko, 4. Michael Voss, 5. Marcus Ashcroft, 6. Jarrod Harbrow, 7. David Armitage, 8. Sam Gilbert, 9. Andrew Raines, 10. Gavin Crosisca.

GOALS: 1. Jason Dunstall, 2. Kurt Tippett, 3. Nick Riewoldt, 4. Charlie Dixon, 5.Che Cockatoo-Collins, 6. Charlie Cameron, 7. Jesse White, 8. Dayne Beams, 9. Dayne Zorko, 10. Jason Akermanis.

WINS. Jason Dunstall, 2. Dayne Beams, 3. Frank Dunell, 4. Clark Keating, 5. Stephen Lawrence (Haw), 6. Robert Copeland, 7. Lee Spurr, 8. Brendan Whitecross, 9. Sam Gilbert, 10. Gavin Crosisca & Ben Hudson.

BROWNLOW VOTES: 1. Michael Voss, 2. Jason Dunstall & Nick Riewoldt, 4. Dayne Beams, 5. Dayne Zorko, 6. David Armitage, 7. Jason Akermanis & Stephen Lawrence (Haw), 9. Scott McIvor, 10. Charlie Dixon.

In chronological order, Queenslanders to play 100 AFL games have been:-

In Queensland selection news for Round 17, Collingwood’s Josh Thomas was omitted for tonight’s blockbuster against West Coast in Perth after 50 consecutive games, and Brisbane’s Eric Hipwood will miss with a knee injury likely to keep him out for 1-2 weeks.

Payne, the big Sunshine Coast defender who has battled injury during his time at the club, was named on an extended interchange bench for the first time with Ben Keays and Archie Smith, but none are expected to play.

Significantly, Brayden Preuss was named in the Melbourne team to play the Western Bulldogs on Sunday despite Max Gawn’s return. Josh and Corey Wagner are among the bench squad as possible inclusions.