With the 2025 AFL season fast approaching, the year is shaping up to have a milestone heavy calendar, with up to 13 players looking to reach significant career moments.
Kicking off the year are two players that have been inseparable throughout their careers in Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom, who have their sights set on breaking the record for most games as teammates.
The pair are looking to take the mantle over from Adelaide Crows duo Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards (307), with the two-time premiership teammates due to reach the milestone in Round Two against the Western Bulldogs.
Looking later in the season, Sidebottom will also be eyeing to become just the second Magpie after Pendlebury to play 350 AFL games.
Round 20 against Richmond at the MCG is the estimated game for the 34-year-old to reach the 350 mark, provided he plays every game of the season to that point.
2025 will be Sidebottom’s 17th AFL season with the 2010 & 2023 premiership player also looking to kick his 200th goal and chalk off a 200th career victory.
Another beloved Collingwood midfielder, Jack Crisp, is set to play his 250th career game at ENGIE Stadium against the GIANTS at Opening Round.
Having not missed a game since being traded to the Pies in 2015, the midfielder will also be looking to surpass Jim Stynes’ record of 244 consecutive games when Collingwood take on Geelong in Round Eight.
Much-loved forward Jamie Elliott is hopeful that he will reach a pair of milestones in 2025, as he enters his 14th AFL season.
Elliott will hope to play his 200th game when Collingwood take on Brisbane in Round Six, with the small forward also on the hunt for 13 more goals to reach the 300-goal milestone.
The 200-game milestone will be a key theme in the Pies’ forward line this year, with Tim Membrey and Dan McStay within reach of the double ton later in the season (Round 21 for McStay and Round 22 for Membrey).
Having joined Collingwood in the most recent delisted free agency window, Membrey, the Traralgon-born tall forward, will be eager to find his place in a competitive front half, while McStay will be eager to add to his 19 games in black and white after an interrupted first two years.
Injuries throughout 2023 limited McStay to only 14 games including the heartbreak of missing of the 2023 premiership, while 2024 was the year of McStay’s return from a long-term knee injury, seeing him play five games for the year.
Moving down the list, three players are on the cusp of reaching their 150th games with Brodie Mihocek, Mason Cox and new Magpie Harry Perryman all in line to reach the achievement.
After being selected as a mature age recruit in 2018, Mihocek instantly become a cult figure amongst the Magpie Army and now stands as a five-time leading goal kicker for the Club.
Mihocek is in line to reach the milestone in Round 13 against Melbourne.
Cox, the most successful AFL player to come out of the United States of America will create history when he runs out for his 150th AFL game, while he also creeps up on the 150 goal achievement, with 27 majors left.
Hailing from the GIANTS academy, 26-year-old Perryman joined the Pies in the 2024 AFL Free Agency window and will slot seamlessly into the team’s plans this year.
Should he play every game for the Pies from Opening Round, fittingly against his former side, the 129-gamer will play his 150th game against Hawthorn in Round 22.
The 100-game milestone is also set to be well populated in 2025, with an eclectic quartet looking to reach their centuries this year.
Having taken his game to a new level in 2024 with a career best season, Darcy Cameron is primed launch to an even higher level in 2025.
Being traded to the Pies from Sydney in 2019, Cameron cemented his position as the key ruck of the side in 2024 playing every game and finishing as runner-up to Nick Daicos in the E.W Copeland Trophy.
Cameron is expected to play his 100th game in Round Five against his former side, the Sydney Swans.
2023 Norm Smith Medallist Bobby Hill will also reach the 100-game milestone in 2025. In an AFL career that has taken plenty of twists and turns, the dazzling small forward will likely play his milestone match in Round 12 at the MCG against Hawthorn.
It’s taken nine years, three clubs and fatherhood for the 100-game milestone to come around for the Belarusian-born Oleg Markov, but the flying half back will be optimistic that he can find his place in the team during the 2025 season and reach the significant achievement.
Markov’s milestone will fall in Round 15 against St.Kilda should he play every game up until that point.
Last but not least of the potential 100-gamers is the brute force of Beau McCreery.
The tough, fast and energetic forward will need to play every game this home and away season to reach the milestone by Round 24 against Melbourne.
