With Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom due to play his 350th AFL game on Thursday night, it would mark the first game in league history in which a team has fielded 2 players who have played at least 350 games, with Sidebottom playing alongside Scott Pendlebury in his 421st game.

Sidebottom would be the 26th player in 129 years to play 350 games, and the Hawks-Magpies game will be the 16,802nd game in league history.

Interestingly, there were only two games in the 20th Century to have 2 350+ gamers on the field, both of them being Hawthorn against Essendon in 1991 (Round 8 and Round 24), when Michael Tuck played against Simon Madden, and between 1897 and 2013 there were only 13 players who reached 350 games, but with longer seasons, sports science and medicine advancing and more players able to play deeper into their 30s, we’ve now had 12 players (Which becomes 13 with Sidebottom) reach 350 games since 2014 alone, with 11 games featuring multiple 350+ gamers in that time.

1. Hawthorn vs Essendon Round 8 1991 – Michael Tuck (411th game) vs Simon Madden (356th game)

2. Essendon vs Hawthorn Round 24 1991 – Simon Madden (370th game) vs Michael Tuck (423rd game)

3. North Melbourne vs Essendon Round 1 2014 – Brent Harvey (363rd game) vs Dustin Fletcher (379th game)

4. Sydney Swans vs North Melbourne Preliminary Final 2014 – Adam Goodes (350th game) vs Brent Harvey (384th game)

5. Sydney Swans vs Essendon Round 1 2015 – Adam Goodes (352nd game) vs Dustin Fletcher (394th game)

6. Essendon vs North Melbourne Round 7 2015 – Dustin Fletcher (398th game) vs Brent Harvey (391st game)

7. North Melbourne vs Sydney Swans Round 11 2015 – Brent Harvey (395th game) vs Adam Goodes (360th game)

8. Sydney Swans vs North Melbourne Semi Final 2015 – Adam Goodes (372nd and final game) vs Brent Harvey (408th game)

9. Geelong vs Collingwood Qualifying Final 2022 – Joel Selwood (353rd game) vs Scott Pendlebury (356th game)

10. Collingwood vs Fremantle Semi Final 2022 – Scott Pendlebury (357th game) vs David Mundy (376th and final game)

11. Geelong vs Port Adelaide Round 9 2024 – Tom Hawkins (355th game) vs Travis Boak (355th game)

12. Collingwood vs Port Adelaide Round 1 2025 – Scott Pendlebury (405th game) vs Travis Boak (372nd game)

13. Geelong vs Port Adelaide Round 21 2025 – Patrick Dangerfield (355th game) vs Travis Boak (384th game)

And the 14th would be Hawthorn vs Collingwood Round 22 2025, with both Pendlebury and Sidebottom lining up for Collingwood.

Some other random notes:

Geelong have fielded 4 players who have reached 350 games since 2020 (Gary Ablett Jnr in 2020, Joel Selwood in 2022, Tom Hawkins in 2024 and Patrick Dangerfield in 2025), but the Cats never got to have 2 of them play in the same team.

The biggest near miss between 1897 and 2013 came twice in 2002, when North Melbourne and Carlton played twice.

The first game was in Round 5, when North’s John Blakey played his 349th game, and Carlton’s Craig Bradley played his 361st game.

The rematch was in Round 20, when Blakey played his 356th game… but sadly, Bradley had played his 378th and final game the week before.

Another honourable mention from 2021, when Hawthorn played Fremantle in Round 17, which was Shaun Burgoyne’s 401st game, while David Mundy played his 348th game for Fremantle.

Inclusive of Collingwood, there are 5 clubs with multiple players playing 350+ games for the one club, but no club has more than 2:

Carlton: Craig Bradley (378) and Bruce Doull (356)

Collingwood: Scott Pendlebury (421*) and Steele Sidebottom (350)

Essendon: Dustin Fletcher (400) and Simon Madden (378)

Fremantle: David Mundy (376) and Matthew Pavlich (350)

Geelong: Tom Hawkins (359) and Joel Selwood (355)