Martin's magic mark

DUSTIN Martin's 33-disposal, four-goal performance against Carlton in the season opener had the footy world buzzing.

The hype was justified, too, because players rarely kick four goals and rack up 30 disposals. So rarely, in fact, that only 21 current players have achieved the feat.

Martin – the unsigned free agent – has now hit the mark twice in his 154-game career, having kicked four goals and gathered 33 disposals against North Melbourne as a 19-year-old in 2011.

And the numbers show where Dusty did the damage on Thursday night:

Gold Coast champion Gary Ablett has kicked at least four goals and racked up 30 or more disposals seven times in his illustrious career at the Suns and Cats, while Greater Western Sydney's Steve Johnson has reached the mark three times.

Martin joined Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield and Bomber David Zaharakis as the current players to have played such a game twice.

30 disposals, four goals (modern players)

Times achieved Player Team 7 Gary Ablett Geelong / Gold Coast 3 Steve Johnson Geelong / GWS 2 Patrick Dangerfield Adelaide / Geelong Dustin Martin Richmond David Zaharakis Essendon 1 David Armitage St Kilda Michael Barlow Fremantle / Gold Coast Dayne Beams Collingwood / Brisbane Lions Harley Bennell Gold Coast / Fremantle Shaun Burgoyne Port Adelaide / Hawthorn Trent Cotchin Richmond Robbie Gray Port Adelaide Toby Greene GWS Luke Hodge Hawthorn Leigh Montagna St Kilda Luke Parker Sydney Scott Pendlebury Collingwood Nick Riewoldt St Kilda Jarryd Roughead Hawthorn Steele Sidebottom Collingwood Callan Ward Western Bulldogs / GWS

Nat Fyfe, Joel Selwood, Luke Dahlhaus, Steve Motlop and Bryce Gibbs have kicked four goals and had 29 disposals once each but never the magical mark.

West Coast's Sam Mitchell has never kicked four goals in a game. Nor has Essendon's Jobe Watson.

What that makes Martin worth as he negotiates a new deal with the Tigers is tough to quantify but it's surely somewhere in the Dangerfield to Pendlebury range of around $800-850,000 per season.

• Brownlow predictor: who scooped the votes in round one?

And if you're wondering why many rate Hawthorn's Leigh Matthews the greatest of all time, consider this:

Lethal Leigh kicked four goals and had more than 30 touches a massive 22 times.

It's been five long years since ...

... the poor old Lions were last inside the eight: the longest dry spell of any team.

Hanging on for a two-point upset in QClash 13 was a stunning start to their season, but it was not enough to end this drought which stretches back to round one, 2012. They're ninth on percentage thanks to recording the lowest winning margin of the round one teams.

Beating Essendon at the Gabba on Saturday night will be enough to finally crack the eight.

Last time in the eight

Brisbane Lions BL Round 1, 2012 Carlton COLL Round 23, 2013* St Kilda STK Round 2, 2015 Collingwood COLL Round 15, 2015 Fremantle FRE Round 23, 2015

*After Essendon's ejection from the eight on the eve of the 2015 finals. Before that: round 12, 2013

Last time the Lions started a game with seven unanswered goals?

Round 23, 2012. The Bulldogs were the victims on that occasion at the Gabba. The Lions last managed it at Metricon Stadium in 2006, when they took the Alastair Clarkson-coached Hawks apart in round seven that season with a withering opening burst.

Two things on opening weekend we hadn't seen since 2006

Melbourne beating St Kilda and Port Adelaide winning at the SCG.

Something new, something old?

Nineteen players made their AFL debut in round one. The oldest? Brett Eddy, who chucked in his stockbroker job to sign a rookie contract with Port Adelaide and played his first game for the Power aged 27 years and 211 days.

However he wasn't the oldest player to debut in the past five years ...

Raining goals

If you thought round one brought a scoreboard bonanza, you were spot on.

There were 1865 points scored across the nine games. That was the highest aggregate scoring in round one since 2000, when a remarkable 1868 points were scored in only eight games.

It was only the third time in the past 50 seasons more than 1800 points were scored in round one.

Stats: Champion Data, AAP, Cameron Sinclair

Want more?

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