IF ONE of the by-products of the mid-season bye is to freshen players up, perhaps there's been no bigger beneficiary than Melbourne's endurance king Ed Langdon.

Saturday night's win over Essendon was the fourth consecutive match Langdon has played 100 per cent game time.

The 28-year-old has not missed a single minute of on-field action since the Demons' round 14 bye. Not satisfied with that, he also rode his bike home from the MCG on Saturday night after the win over the Bombers.

Of course, Langdon is no stranger to tearing up and down a wing for an entire match, but the past month is the first time coach Simon Goodwin has asked that of him since the end of 2022, when he was doing it almost weekly.

Christian Petracca's season-ending injury in the King's Birthday match against Collingwood has forced the Dees to go a little younger in recent weeks, with Langdon's extra work-rate a huge assistance as Goodwin manages his rotations.

Langdon was not the only player to stay on the field for the entire match in round 18, with Geelong's Ollie Dempsey and Greater Western Sydney's Connor Idun the other non-key position players to match the feat over the weekend.

While key position players regularly play out a whole match, there have been just nine instances in 2024 of a non-key position player doing so, according to statistics provided by Champion Data.

At the age of just 21, Dempsey's feat is incredible and unsurprisingly the first time in his young career he has done so.

The same goes for Idun, who at 23 was playing his 85th career game on Sunday. In the absence of the injured Sam Taylor and omitted Leek Aleer, 193cm Idun played as a virtual third key defender against Richmond, so you could technically put an asterisk alongside his name in this category.

Jake Kelly has done it twice for Essendon this year, in the Anzac Day game against Collingwood and two weeks later against the Giants.

The only other instance of 100 per cent game-time from a non-key came from Carlton's Alex Cincotta, who ran out the entire round nine match against Melbourne that his Blues won by a solitary point.

Playing 100 per cent of game time, 2024

(non key position players)

Ed Langdon: Melbourne v Essendon, R18
Ollie Dempsey: Geelong v Collingwood, R18
Connor Idun: Greater Western Sydney v Richmond, R18
Ed Langdon: Melbourne v West Coast, R17
Ed Langdon: Melbourne v Brisbane, R16
Ed Langdon: Melbourne v North Melbourne, R15
Alex Cincotta: Carlton v Melbourne, R9
Jake Kelly: Essendon v Greater Western Sydney, R9
Jake Kelly: Essendon v Collingwood, R7