WITH 259 games to his name, Nick Dal Santo sits in eighth spot on the career games tally for St Kilda. This puts him by far in the lead for the most games played in the no. 26 for the club.

And if all goes as planned, Dal Santo could next year eclipse Mark Bickey's 272 games as the most by any AFL player in the no. 26.

But as prolific as Dal Santo’s career has been to date, he is still yet to win a St Kilda best and fairest – unlike Jack Davis who won three club best and fairests while wearing 26 in the 1930s.

Davis was posthumously inducted to the Saints’ Hall of Fame in 2007, 69 years after his 150-game career came to a close.

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Others to have worn the no. 26 include John Manzie who wore it in 117 games from 1967 to 1975 and Ian Rowland who would have fair claim to being one of the unluckiest players in St Kilda’s history.

Rowland played 18 games for the Saints in 1966, missing just two weeks in the middle of the season. He took part in the preliminary final win over Essendon as 20^th man but was dropped for the following week which turned out to be St Kilda’s only premiership win.

He never played for the Saints again, finishing his career with 109 games.

Another brief custodian of the jumper was Daryl Hewitt who wore it for 26 games in 1981-82. Hewitt’s sporting profile was somewhat overshadowed by his nephew Lleyton who went on to become one of Australia’s greatest ever tennis players.

Nick Dal Santo:
I wore no. 18 with the Bendigo Pioneers in the TAC Cup and Grant Thomas allocated the numbers when we got to the club.

Others in my draft class were Luke Ball, Xavier Clarke, Leigh Montagna, Matt Maguire and Josh Houlihan and we got allocated our numbers according to where we got drafted – except Goose (Maguire) who for some reason had a lower number than Joey.

I actually wanted no. 15 but Steve Lawrence had it at that time so I just had to settle with what they had given me. Robert Powell had worn no. 26 the year before me and Joe McLaren had it for a few years before that.

I do take a bit of interest in those who have worn it before me – I’ve met John Manzie who wore it in 117 games in the 60s and 70s.

It’s definitely a part of my footy life now I guess and I couldn’t imagine wearing any other number now. If I buy a lotto ticket I make sure I have 26 in there.

Also, and this has nothing to do with anything, but on Deal or No Deal they call out “Boo-Yah” whenever they call up case number 26.

NUMBER 26 OVER TIME