When Cassidy Davis laces up the boots for Newcastle Jets on Friday night, she’ll be doing so for the 100th time.
In succession.
Since her club debut.
She has not missed a single game for the Jets through injury, suspension, or otherwise.
It’s a feat no player in A-Leagues history has ever achieved, and what makes it all the more impressive is the length of time the 27-year-old has taken to accomplish it.
Making her Jets debut in November, 2013, cap number 100 comes eight years later. Not a game has been missed in between by one of the most consistent players in A-Leagues history.
Featuring for Ash Wilson’s Jets side against Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night will ensure Davis becomes the first ever player, either male or female, to clock 100 consecutive A-Leagues appearances in a row stretching from a league debut.
The top five players with consecutive Liberty A-League fixtures beginning from a league debut currently stands as follows:
- Cassidy Davis: 99 (most recent game 10/12/21)
- Renee Rollason: 76 (ended 11/10/14)
- Natasha Dowie: 57 (ended 14/03/20)
- Celeste Boureille: 51 (ended 01/03/20)
- Lydia Williams: 46 (ended 28/01/12)
The top five players leading the same category in the Isuzu UTE A-League, meanwhile, stand as follows:
- Erik Paartalu: 79 (ended 10/06/21)
- James O’Shea: 58 (most recent game 11/12/21)
- Bobô: 57 (ended 28/04/18)
- Adam Le Fondre: 57 (ended 30/08/20)
- Matt Thompson: 57 (ended 26/10/07)
Stats collated by Andrew Howe.
Davis will look to clock her 100th Jets appearance against the Wanderers on Friday night as her side continue an encouraging start to the season sparked by an emphatic 5-1 win over Wellington Phoenix in Round 2.
Newcastle lost to Sydney FC in Round 1 – Davis’ 98th consecutive appearance – but the return of CommBank Matildas star Emily van Egmond helped turn the tide. The Jets now sit in fourth spot on the Liberty A-League table heading into Davis’ milestone match.
If she reaches the 100-game mark on Friday night, Davis will then set off in pursuit of another A-Leagues record which would elevate the Jets co-captain into sole ownership of the longest streak of consecutive appearances in A-Leagues history, regardless of whether that streak began from a league debut or not.
Nikolai Topor-Stanley’s 108-game streak which ended in July 2021 is the longest-standing in A-Leagues history, with the top five as follows:
- Nikolai Topor-Stanley: 108 (ended 10/06/21)
- Steven Ugarkovic: 108 (ended 27/03/21)
- Cassidy Davis: 99 (most recent game 10/12/21)
- Alex Wilkinson: 98 (ended 13/03/11)
- Marianna Tabain: 96 (ended 18/12/16)
Just as Davis would clock appearance number 100 for Newcastle against Western Sydney in Round 5, she would jump above Topor-Stanley in the above standings with her 109th appearance in succession against the Wanderers in Round 12 should she continue her ever-present run in the Jets side.
In her eight seasons at the club, Davis has featured in the finals just once (2017/18).
In an expanding league in which regular-season fixtures haven’t come in abundance for Davis to clock up, to reach her 100th in succession at 27 years of age is an incredible feat made all the more impressive by Newcastle’s lack of post-season fixtures throughout that time.
