Round seven Hampden footy stats: Big man's 91 hit-outs a league record?

Hamilton Kangaroos ruckman Levi Dare, a recipient of the HFNL's best and fairest in 2010, 2012 and 2016 while playing for Cobden, recorded a monster 91 hit-outs in his side's 18.6 (114) to 11.11 (77) round seven loss to Port Fairy on Saturday, May 25.

For comparison, Todd Goldstein holds the AFL hit-out record for one game with 80 against GWS in 2015 while Cobden's Tim Auckland's 71-hitout game in round two is the second most in a HFNL game this year.

In 2021, AFL premiership ruckman Trent West registered 119 hit-outs for Geelong league club Leopold and it was speculated at the time he may have broken record across all competitions.

It is unknown how Dare's performance stacks up against previous years as statistics from past Hampden league seasons aren't available.

The 35-year-old's colossal performance also included 23 disposals and six clearances.

He said the high stoppage numbers (139) during the game helped his cause.

The Hamilton-based tall won't take much consolation from his individual performance though after his team fell short.

"It means nothing if you play good in a loss to me," he told The Standard.

It's just disappointing that we couldn't get over the line, I thought we could. At the end of the day they were too good."

The fixture was Dare's second in the Blue and white for the year but will be his last as he returns to Colac and District league club Alvie for the remainder of the season.

The champion footballer, who didn't rule out a Kangaroos return in future seasons, has enjoyed being around the club again.

He previously played with the Kangaroos in 2019 and 2021.

"It's been good just to help out the boys, they've been good enough to let me train there in the pre-season and help out a bit so it's good to give back," he said.

Kangaroos coach Brad Thomas said the club had benefited from Dare's presence on and off the field.

"It's just good having him around the club," he said.

"He trains with us, (he's been) helping out. He's played a lot of footy and everyone enjoys having him around."

Other notable performances from round four included Luke Wines' (North Warrnambool Eagles) 34-disposal, three-clearance, six-tackle effort against Warrnambool and Shannon Beks' (South Warrnambool) 15-mark, three-goal showing versus Camperdown.

Portland midfield duo Toby Jennings (38 disposals, eight clearances, seven tackles, one goal) and Lochie Huppatz (33 disposals, 14 clearances, 15 tackles) were also prolific against Cobden.