Maybe Milestones?
Monday 3rd April, 2006
 

We’re only two rounds into the 2006 season, but already we can see potential milestones for some Port Kembla players. 

Nick Nikitaras leads all current players with 141 grade games for The Blacks. All going well, Nikko should bring up his 150^th grade game for Port against Thirroul at Gibson Park in round 11 (18/6/2006). Nick will become only the 10^th player since 1982 to achieve this feat, the record for which has been set by Victor Daly (265), with Richard Velthuis the only other Port player to register at least 200 grade games for Port since ’82 (201). Dare we call Nikko a “veteran”? 

Ben Carr is the only other current Port player to have played 100 club games (107), and Jason Sullivan is the closest to reaching the milestone, currently sitting on 82 at the end of the second round. There is a possibility that “Sully” could hit the ton this year towards the season’s end – perhaps even during the play-offs should The Blacks make it. 

It is not surprising then that Nikitaras also leads the list of active players having played the most First Grade games for Port Kembla since 1982. Currently on 78, Nikitaras will fall just shy of the achievement this season, but will get there next year if he straps on the boots for the Blacks again. If he does so, he will become just the sixth player after Victor Daly (212), Richard Velthuis (181), Robert Freimayer (114), David Borg (113) and Michael Brown (113). 

Players with a chance of hitting 50 First Grade games for Port include Ben Carr (48), Mark Simon (45), Luke Roberts (38), Jiuta Suka (38) and Lulia Lulia (38). 

Mark Simon brought up his 500^th point in Port colours against Western Suburbs in Round 1. The classy half is a pointscoring machine, having already scored 46 points in two rounds from 6 tries and 11 goals. In fact, over his 45 game career, Simon has amassed 540 points. That’s a staggering 12 points per game. The closest to this average is current Wests halfback, David Hall, who in his 15 games for Port in 2003 scored 162 points (10.8 points per game). There are three games that this writer can remember where Simon has scored four tries in a match. If he keeps averaging these points in each game, Simon will overtake Victor Daly’s recent record of 597 points in round 7 at Dapto Showground against the Canaries. If he continues on this season’s form (averaging 23 points per game), Daly’s top mark will be overtaken in round 5 against Berkeley at Noel Mulligan Oval. 

Four active port players feature in the top six pointscorers since 1982 with Simon (2^nd – 540), Rod Keen (3^rd – 408), Daniel Bunt (5^th – 354) and Jason Sullivan (6^th – 290) joining Victor Daly (1^st – 597) and Richard Velthuis (4^th – 394). Jiuta Suka and Mohamad Alchaar (92) and George Webb (88) are the closest active players nearing the 100 points mark in the club. 

Of all active players, Kayne Spinks owns the dubious honour of having played the most games (18) without registering a point. John Gann holds the record in this category since 1982 having played 53 games without scoring. Matthew Campbell was inching closer to the record last season playing close to 50 games without return before somehow crossing the line for the first time in his career.