The 22-year-old livewire, who will post his 100th game against Essendon at the Gabba on Sunday, will be the 64th Brisbane player to the ‘ton’. And the second-youngest behind fellow #44 Nigel Lappin.
It’s been an astonishing journey for the club’s first pick in the 2021 National Draft.
Originally from Yarrambat in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and a product of the Northern Knights, Wilmot was catapulted into the AFL arena at 18 in the Lions’ 2022 elimination final against Richmond at the Gabba, having played 19 consecutive VFL games.
Ironically, the only game he has missed since joining the club was Round 1 of the 2022 VFL season, when he was suspended for one match for a dangerous tackle on Adelaide’s Ned McHenry in the pre-season.
Wilmot, a loveable larrikin prone to disrupt coach Chris Fagan by putting a finger in his ear during post-match media interviews in the locker room, will be aged 22 years, 193 days against the Bombers on Sunday having enjoyed a 70.1% win rate while playing 14 finals and three grand finals for two flags.
A hot contender for the 2026 All-Australian squad, Wilmot will post a century that statistically is superior to all but one player – Collingwood full forward of the 1920s and ‘30s, Harry Collier.
Wilmot will be 182 days younger than Collier, an Australian Football Hall of Famer and a four-time Collingwood premiership player, captain and Team of the Century member. And will have played in two more finals.
But Collier, who played his 100th game in the Pies’ 1930 grand final win, enjoyed an 84.9% win ratio through 100 games, and had played five grand finals for four premierships in a row.
Wilmot will be the second Brisbane player to register 100 consecutive games from debut after Jack Redden did likewise from 2009-14.
But he’s at least five years from challenging the all-time AFL record of 194 consecutive games from debut, held by Sydney’s Jared Crouch at 194.
And by then the target could be even higher, with St Kilda co-captain Callum Wilkie now at 171.
The AFL’s top 10 players for consecutive games from debut are:-
194 – Jared Crouch (Syd) – 1998-2006
171 – Callum Wilkie (StK) – 2019-2026
130 – Sam Gibson (NM) – 2012-18
127 – Dick Taylor (Melb) – 1922-28)
124 – David Mundy (Frem) – 2005-10
113 – Stephen Wallis (WB) – 1983-88
112 – Jack Redden (Bris) – 2009-14
107 – Shane Woewodin (Melb) – 1997-2001
100 – Harry Collier (Coll) – 1926-30
99 – Darcy Wilmot (Bris) – 2022-26
Wilmot’s ‘live’ streak of 99 games is 12th among current players behind Collingwood’s ex-Lion Jack Crisp (278), Wilkie (171), Adelaide’s ex-Lion Ben Keays (147), Port Adelaide’s Willem Drew (135), Bulldogs’ Bailey Dale (135), Collingwood’s Josh Daicos (117), Hawthorn’s Blake Hardwick (117), Fremantle’s Andrew Brayshaw (111) and Jordan Clark (110), Geelong’s Zach Guthrie (108) and Sydney’s Nick Blakey (103).
Three other Brisbane players are in the top 18 - Cam Rayner (98) is 13th, Jaspa Fletcher (84) is 15th and Josh Dunkley (79) is 17th.
Fletcher, who hasn’t missed a game since his debut in Round 13 2023, is tracking towards his own slice of history. At 90 games he will pull level with ex-St Kilda captain Danny Frawley, who is 18th on the ‘consecutive games from debut’ list.
The Wilmot journey could be an advertisement for local Tourism. A bit like ‘join the AFL and see Australia’.
On his way to 100 games he’s played 28 times in Victoria, 10 times in South Australia, four times in Western Australia and New South Wales, and twice in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
Yet it could be even more remarkable given his date of birth – 31 December 2003.
If he was born even 24 hours later, on 1 January 2004, he would not have been eligible to be drafted until 2022, when Brisbane’s Will Ashcroft was pick #2 behind GWS’ Aaron Cadman and ahead of North Melbourne’s Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw.
Still, Wilmot will be just the fourth player from the 2021 draft class of 106 to reach 100 games, behind Collingwood #4 Nick Daicos (110), Hawthorn #26 Connor Macdonald (106) and Adelaide #36 Jake Soligo, who will beat him by 14 and a half hours, playing his 100th on Saturday night.
Completing the top 10 on the 2021 draft games list are St Kilda #11 Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (98), North Melbourne now Port Adelaide’s #1 Jason Horne-Francis (95), West Coast #31 Brody Hough, North pick #35 Paul Curtis and St Kilda #47 Marcus Windhager (91), and GWS #3 Finn Callaghan and Fremantle #8 Jy Amiss (87).
A win over the Bombers on Sunday would give Wilmot a 69% win ration at 100 games – behind only Callum Ah Chee (74.7%), Jonathan Brown (74.0%), Mal Michael (73.7%), Martin Pike (72.7%), Tim Notting (71.7%) and Simon Black (70.0%), and equal with Lincoln McCarthy and Jarrdy Lyons.
He’ll go into the game with plenty of confidence, having had a career-high 32 possessions when last the sides met in Round 8 at Marvel Stadium to give him a 4-0 record against Essendon.
