It’s almost to make you want to steal the old advertising slogan… but wait, there’s more!
Cameron is the #1 Member of the Chris Fagan Brisbane Lions Rebuilding Program, having made a call in October 2017 to walk away from an AFL grand final side and join the wooden-spooners.
The now 32-year-old excitement machine was the first ‘big’ signing of the club’s rebuild under coach Fagan, who at the time was 12 months, 22 games, five wins and one ‘spoon’ into his time in Brisbane.
On Sunday, when the Lions play Port Adelaide at the Gabba, Cameron will become just the second Brisbane import all-time to play 200 games for the club.
Among 135 players who over 40 years have moved north after starting their AFL career at a rival club, only Chris Johnson has played more games than 199-gamer Cameron.
Johnson, the 2001-02-03 premiership defender who is now a Melbourne-based Director on the Lions board, played 205 games for Brisbane from 1997-2007 after 59 games with Fitzroy from 1994-96.
Johnson heads 17 “imports” who have played 100 Brisbane games. They are:-
205 – Chris Johnson
199 – Charlie Cameron *
186 – Alastair Lynch
177 – Lachie Neale *
164 – Roger Merrett
147 – Mitch Robinson
146 – Brad Scott
145 – Scott McIvor
140 – Mal Michael
133 – Stefan Martin
130 – Lincoln McCarthy *
124 – Callum AhChee
113 – John Gastev
107 – Adrian Fletcher
106 – Martin Pike
102 – Jarryd Lyons
101 – Brad Hardie
(* denotes current players)
Cameron will join another exclusive group on Sunday when he becomes the 25th player all-time to play 100 games at the Gabba.
But while his twin milestone against the Power is good fodder for Lions fans and football historians the much bigger story – especially for coach Fagan – is the back story to it all.
Certainly, how and why Cameron moved to Brisbane won’t have escaped Fagan’s memory.
It’s all in the first paragraph of a story written by former Courier-Mail journalist reporter Andrew Hamilton that was posted on news.com.au the day after confirmation of the trade for the Mt.Isa-born star, who spent his early years living on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and went to school at Marist College Ashgrove.
It read: “Charlie Cameron says his move to the Lions isn’t just a homecoming but also an escape from the relentless scrutiny his former team the Crows receive in “footy mad Adelaide”.
Hamilton told how Cameron had never quite adapted to the ‘footy bubble’ of Adelaide despite at the time having developed a reputation as one of the AFL’s most exciting young players and been one of the Crows’ better players in their grand final loss to Richmond.
Cameron said at the time: “I came back for holidays all the time, but it is good to be back permanently with family and friends. Being in Adelaide it is footy central whereas here it is more rugby league, so I guess it is a bit of an escape.
“Adelaide, it is just footy, footy, footy, here there isn’t as much talk about it and you can get away and enjoy yourself a bit more and not have to think about footy all the time.
“I guess if you think about it all the time it can play on you, I had that a little bit in Adelaide, so I am going to enjoy the change.’’
Cameron has done that and more, enjoying a stellar career with Brisbane amid the growth of the code to still acceptable levels, where players can enjoy time out of the spotlight.
Not insignificantly, Cameron, who joined Brisbane with Luke Hodge for the 2018 season, is the #1 import in the AFL on a games basis since that time.
He is 29th to top 100 games, including current teammates Lachie Neale (177) and Lincoln McCarthy (130), and ex-teammate Callum AhChee (124).
Neale is #2 on the import games list 2018-26 from ex-Lion Ben Keays, who has played 149 games with Adelaide.
And as if that’s not enough, there’s another twist which is especially topical this week, plus a freaky statistic oddity that trumps everything for football trivia, plus a feel-good family connection to Sunday’s double milestone.
Brisbane traded pick #12 in the 2017 National Draft for Cameron, and with pick #12 Adelaide drafted Darcy Fogarty – who this week was suspended for three matches for a swinging arm.
While Fogarty has been on a hot streak, having kicked 18 goals in the last six weeks, the statistics say that the aggressive Brisbane trade for Cameron has been a winner.
Fogarty has played 139 games for a 62-1-75 overall record at 44.9% and an 0-2 mark in finals, and amassed 1401 possessions (10.1 per game), 224 goals (1.61 per game) and eight Brownlow Medal votes.
In the same period Cameron has played 199 games for a 130-2-67 split (66.0%), including 12-8 in finals, three grand finals and two flags, and enjoyed 2153 possessions (10.8 per game), 387 goals (1.94 per game) and 25 votes.
Included in this is a streak of 145 games without a miss from 2018-24 which is #2 on the club’s all-time list of consecutive games.
Moreover, the crowd for the 2017 grand final was 100,021. The crowd for Cameron’s next visit to ‘headquarters’ for the ‘big dance’ in 2023 was 100,024, before it dipped slightly to 100,013 in 2024 and rose slightly to 100,022 last year.
And, when Cameron runs out for his twin milestone in his customary #23 jumper on Sunday he’ll do so alongside the sons of the first Gabba ‘centurion’.
Marcus Ashcroft, father of Will and Levi, played his 100th at the ground in Round 10 2001 – the famous ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game against Essendon.
Having played in the club’s first four games at the Gabba in 1991 prior to the relocation from Carrara, and the first at the new-look Gabba in 1993, Ashcroft Snr played an extraordinary 136 of a possible 137 Gabba games before his 2003 retirement.
The only game he missed was the Round 9 2000 game against Collingwood when a thigh strain ended his club record 170 games in a row, which 26 years on, ranks 12th longest in AFL history.
Brisbane games record-holder Simon Black heads 24 players to have played 100 games at the Gabba. The list in games order, with current players noted by an (*), is:-
170 – Simon Black
157 – Dayne Zorko *
149 – Luke Power
147 – Michael Voss & Nigel Lappin
139 – Daniel Rich
136 – Marcus Ashcroft
135 – Jason Akermnais
133 – Jonathan Brown
128 – Darryl White
125 – Shaun Hart
124 – Harris Andrews *
120 – Ryan Lester *
117 – Justin Leppitsch
115 – Daniel Bradshaw
114 – Chris Scott
111 – Chris Johnson & Ash McGrath
109 – Hugh McCluggage *
107 – Tim Notting
106 – Jed Adcock & Daniel Merrett
105 – Craig McRae
101 – Eric Hipwood *
99 – Charlie Cameron *
Cameron’s 100th Gabba game will spare him the narrow miss of Alastair Lynch, who played 98 games at the Gabba – two for Fitzroy in 1991 and 1993, 11 for the Bears in 1994 and 1996, and 85 for the Lions.
There’s even a modern-day “Lions” connection to the very first of 429 AFL games at the Gabba six years before the birth of the Brisbane Bears.
It was in 1981 between Hawthorn and Essendon, when playing his 236th game for the Hawks, was Leigh Matthews, later to coach the Lions’ 2001-02-03 premiership hat-trick.
