We've found the AFL's Russell Westbrook.
Basketball superstar Westbrook this year moved into outright second all-time in the NBA for 'triple-doubles', with the Oklahoma City guard's career total of 141 trailing only Oscar Robertson's 181 for the most ever.
For the non-basketball fans among you, a triple-double is recorded when a player reaches double digits in three categories – most commonly in points, rebounds and assists.
There is no perfect way of translating that combination to the AFL's suite of statistics, but we've tried, anyway.
Here are the three categories we settled on at AFL.com.au: disposals, marks and score involvements.
As always, there was a rigorous debate to reach this point, and Champion Data disagreed with including disposals, but we're going with it, anyway.
Champion's argument was disposals and score involvements overlap, or double dip, if you like, whereas none of basketball's numbers do.
That's a fair point, but disposals has the best correlation with basketball's points, as in they are the most common statistic in each sport for the most players to reach 10 in.
There is a nice symmetry in disposals/points, marks/rebounds and score involvements/assists, too.
Let's be honest, something like this has to be relatable and fairly achievable, with one other suggested combination being score involvements, tackles and clearances.
Only 12 players managed that sequence between 2006 and 2019 – and none this season.
In comparison, the disposals, marks and score involvements triple-double occurred 427 times between 2010 and the weekend just gone, including 21 this season.
Score involvements is a relatively new statistic, so that's why 2010 is the start date.
Giant Lachie Whitfield is the sole player to manage the feat twice this season – giving him three for his career – while Richmond's Jason Castagna was the only one to do it in round 16.
PLAYER | ROUND | DISPOSALS | MARKS | SCORE INVOLVEMENTS |
Jarrod Berry (BL) | 2 | 23 | 10 | 11 |
Lachie Whitfield (GWS) | 3 | 42 | 12 | 10 |
Eric Hipwood (BL) | 3 | 14 | 10 | 10 |
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (Ess) | 4 | 20 | 10 | 12 |
Mitch Brown (Ess) | 4 | 25 | 11 | 10 |
Dyson Heppell (Ess) | 5 | 32 | 10 | 11 |
Harry McKay (Carl) | 5 | 20 | 11 | 10 |
Matt Taberner (Frem) | 5 | 21 | 13 | 10 |
Ricky Henderson (Haw) | 5 | 33 | 10 | 10 |
Ed Langdon (Frem) | 5 | 32 | 10 | 10 |
Aaron Naughton (WB) | 7 | 16 | 14 | 11 |
Lachie Whitfield (GWS) | 9 | 40 | 18 | 14 |
Mitch Duncan (Geel) | 9 | 25 | 11 | 11 |
Tim Taranto (GWS) | 9 | 38 | 12 | 11 |
Stephen Coniglio (GWS) | 11 | 36 | 13 | 15 |
Jeremy Finlayson (GWS) | 11 | 23 | 12 | 11 |
Rory Atkins (Adel) | 11 | 27 | 11 | 11 |
Tom Lynch (Adel) | 11 | 26 | 13 | 10 |
Xavier Duursma (PA) | 11 | 23 | 10 | 10 |
Tim Membrey (StK) | 13 | 17 | 10 | 10 |
Jason Castagna (Rich) | 16 | 18 | 10 | 12 |
There were a record-breaking 127 triple-doubles in the recently completed NBA regular season, with Westbrook subsequently adding two more of his own in the playoffs.
NBA✔@NBA
total triple-doubles were recorded throughout the 2018-19 regular season... an NBA record!
Without further ado, here are the AFL's all-time triple-double leaders.
Defenders are sorely lacking – owing mostly to score involvements – with forwards dominating, but Brendon Goddard (10), Dane Swan (seven), and Kade Simpson, Brent Stanton and Brett Deledio (five) are exceptions to the rule.
Isaac Smith, Shaun Grigg, Bryce Gibbs, Mitch Duncan and Jordan Lewis have achieved a triple-double four times apiece as well.
