CAL WILKIE has always been good with numbers. The day St Kilda selected him at pick No.3 in the 2018 AFL Rookie Draft, he was sitting at his desk in the Adelaide accounting firm he worked at. Now he is crunching numbers in a different business.

The 27-year-old hasn't missed a game since making his debut in round one 2019, banking 90 consecutive games during a period where he has gone from becoming a permanent fixture in the Saints' back six to one of the best key defenders in the AFL. 

After being elevated to vice-captain on the eve of this season, Wilkie has elevated his game across the first five rounds of 2023 to be rated the No.2 key defender (14.7) in the competition behind Greater Western Sydney star Sam Taylor (14.8).

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Wilkie is averaging the third-most rankings points (101.4) of any key defender behind All-Australian pair Luke Ryan (120.0) and Tom Stewart (102.8), according to Champion Data.

The South Australian is rated elite among key defenders for disposals (21.6 per game), intercept possessions (9.8), intercept marks (4.4) and metres gained (357m). 

Wilkie among the elite

No player in the competition has taken more intercept marks than Wilkie (22) ahead of round six, while Taylor (52) is the only player to accumulate more intercept possessions than the Saint, who has 49 on the board. 

St Kilda has conceded the fewest points by far this season, averaging a miserly 59.4 points per game – Essendon is the only side to score more than 70 points against Ross Lyon's side, and the Bombers registered only 74. Sydney is the next best at 75.2 points per game. 

Wilkie has been a key reason. Not only is he the general down back, alongside Dougal Howard, but he has also conceded just four goals in his five main match-ups in 2023. Aaron Naughton kicked two on him in round two, while he restricted Jake Stringer and Ben King to just one each. 

Wilkie's scalps in 2023

The Rostrevor College product was overlooked in four drafts before St Kilda plucked him out of the SANFL following two dominant years. 

After finishing runner-up in North Adelaide's best and fairest in 2017, Wilkie was one of the best players in the state league the following season when he led the Roosters to their first flag in 27 years, winning the best and fairest to finally convince a club to take the punt. 

Since then, Wilkie has finished in the top ten of the Trevor Barker Award in all four seasons. He finished seventh in his debut year, seventh again in 2020, then fourth in 2021 and runner-up behind Jack Sinclair last year, when he was named in the 44-man AFL All-Australian squad. 

If the accountant from Adelaide continues this upward trajectory, he will need to be measured up for his first All-Australian blazer come September. 

Plenty has happened for Wilkie since that November Friday afternoon in 2018 when the Saints made him an AFL-listed player while he was still at the office. He had to pack up his desk the next day and move to Melbourne the day after that. 

Wilkie hasn't completely turned his back on a life in accounting. He is spending one day a week working in the finance department for one of St Kilda's major sponsors, RSEA. But he won't be going back to full-time accounting anytime soon.