On Sunday afternoon at the MCG against the Bombers, club vice-captain and 23-year-old midfield star Caleb Serong will play his 100th AFL game.

Taken at pick eight of the 2019 National Draft, Serong will become just the 51st Fremantle player to reach this milestone, joining current teammates Nat Fyfe (237), Michael Walters (238), Luke Ryan (151), Andrew Brayshaw (142), Matthew Taberner (124), Alex Pearce (122), Sean Darcy (109), Ethan Hughes (107), Brennan Cox (107), and James Aish (100) in representing Fremantle 100 or more times.

Serong’s 100 games come with an illustrious number of individual awards. The young star won the 2020 AFL Rising Star award after playing 14 games in his debut season, averaging 16.86 disposals, 4.29 tackles, and 3.43 clearances per game. Additionally, Serong was voted the best first-year player in 2020 by the AFL Players' Association.

In 2021, Serong wasn’t slowing down, being voted the best young player by the AFL Coaches Association and winning the Goal of the Year award after his famously dubbed ‘so wrong, so right’ check-side goal against cross-town rivals West Coast in RAC Derby 53.

In the same game, Serong also earned the first of his three Glendenning-Allan Medals, after his 31 disposals, five tackles, and two goals helped Fremantle snap an 11-game losing streak to the Eagles that spanned from late 2015. Serong has gone on to win two more Glendenning-Allan Medals since 2021, the third just last week during the Club’s 35-point win in RAC Derby 59.

Serong now sits equal with former Fremantle players Lachie Neale, Michael Barlow, and Matthew Pavlich with three medals, one behind all-time medal leader Paul Hasleby, who has four.

Since then, Serong has been named in the 22under22 team twice (2022, 2023), and after a career-best 2023 season where the gun midfielder averaged 30.68 disposals (14.26 contested), 4.95 tackles, 5.18 inside 50s, and 7.59 clearances per game, he was named the Herald Sun Player of the Year, earned his first All-Australian jacket, and won his first-ever Doig Medal.

Serong is on track for another outstanding season in 2024, already equalling the AFL’s all-time record for most consecutive 20-plus disposals games with 70 and could break the record in his 100^th game on Sunday.

Serong currently sits fourth overall in the AFL in 2024 for total disposals (579) at an average of 30.5 per game and second overall for clearances (148), earning himself an elite ranking by Champion Data.

This season alone, Serong has already broken the Club’s all-time record for most disposals in a single game with 46 against Brisbane back in round one, surpassing Club legend Peter Bell’s previous record of 44 set in 2001.

The 23-year-old sensation also broke the Club’s all-time record for most clearances in a single game with 17 against the Western Bulldogs in round seven.

Serong also set the Club record for most tackles in a game (14) back in 2022 against the Suns in just his 43^rd AFL game.

He holds the third-highest number of disposals in a single season for the Club after his 2023 campaign (675 disposals), and his 2024 season sits just 158 disposals (with four games remaining) behind Lachie Neale’s record of 737.

With the former number eight pick lining up against Essendon on Sunday, he will play the Bombers for just the fourth time in his career (equal lowest alongside GWS and Port Adelaide), but that has not stopped the midfielder from averaging 27 disposals against them (fifth highest average against all clubs).

Here’s to 100 games of Caleb Serong, and hopefully many, many more.