Appearance Achievements
Starting in the Chicago Hounds reserves for the first time this season, Australian tighthead prop Charlie Abel was called up early due to an injury to starting TH Wilton Rebolo. Abel came on just before the first hydration break of his 81st career Major League Rugby appearance, but more importantly, it marked his 50th appearance with the Chicago Hounds, making him just the 3rd player in team history (and 3rd this season!) to reach a half-century of games with the team!
Melbourne native Charlie Abel first entered Major League Rugby with the LA Giltinis in 2021, helping the team to their first and only Shield title in their first season, recording highs in starts (14) and tackles (164) that remain his MLR career highs through 2026. Abel earned 31 appearances (22 starts) across 2 seasons for the Giltinis before their disqualification and subsequent withdrawal from MLR in 2022. From LA, Abel joined the Chicago Hounds for their inaugural season in 2023 and hasn’t looked back.
Of his 50 appearances as a Chicago Hounds, Abel has started 34 of them, scoring 7 of his 11 career tries including 3 so far this season, tying his career high set in 2022. Abel has recorded over 100 tackles in every season he’s featured in prior to 2026 (where the shortened season makes 100+ tackles much harder to achieve) and has just passed 1,500m gained in possession, averaging just shy of 20m per game over an 81 game MLR career which is particularly high for a front row. Abel earned his 50th appearance with the Hounds with his brother Robbie in attendance, who serves as an assistant coach with Chicago’s Round 9 opponents, the Seattle Seawolves. Congratulations, Charlie!
Coincidentally, Charlie Abel wasn’t the only Australian front row player for the Chicago Hounds with an Appearance Achievement in Round 9, this time on the loosehead side. Veteran Jake Turnbull was named to the Hounds’ starting XV this week to earn his 100th MLR appearance, becoming the 7th Centurion on league history, and the 3rd player to earn his 100th appearance as a Chicago Hound after Dylan Fawsitt (MLR’s first Centurion) and Luke White earlier this season.
Sydney native Jake Turnbull moved to the United States in 2015, and is one of very few remaining active MLR players to have featured in the short lived PRO Rugby competition in 2016, representing the Denver Stampede. When Major League Rugby was founded, Turnbull joined the Houston SaberCats and has played in every season of competition to date. Turnbull has already had an historic season in 2026. When he earned his Hounds debut in their 2026 opener against Anthem RC back in Week 2, Turnbull became just the 2nd player in MLR history to have represented six different teams in the competition, having played with Houston (2018-2019), Old Glory DC (2020), Austin Gilgronis (2021-2022), Seattle Seawolves (2023), Anthem RC (2024-2025), and now Chicago in 2026! Turnbull follows Sean McNulty in representing six different teams in the competition.
Turnbull was the 18th player in MLR history to reach 50 appearances in the competition and in his 100th appearance, Turnbull passed 700 career tackles made in his career, the highest among props in MLR history (with the exception of Luke White who has played all over the forward pack). Capped for the USA as Eagle #562, he has scored 14 tries including a high of 5 for the Austin Gilgronis in 2022, and has started 52 of his 100 games racking up just over 1,907m gained in possession, averaging aWeek the same metres gained per game as Charlie Abel, just in 19 more appearances. Congratulations, Jake!
Finishing up the Appearance Achievements section of this week’s Midweek Milestones article we head to Old Glory DC, who have a new most capped player! Just a few weeks ago in Week 6, Fijian lock and USA Eagle #591 Tevita Naqali suffered a brutal arm injury that looked like it would end his season. However, just 3 weeks later he was on the bench for the Flags’ Week 9 clash with the California Legion in Sacramento. A member of Old Glory DC since their inaugural season in 2020, Naqali came off the bench in the 60th minute to earn his 77th MLR appearance for the Flags, passing Jack Iscaro’s 76 games to become the most capped player in team history!
Naqali has started 65 of his 77 appearances for Old Glory DC across his 7 seasons of competition in MLR so far, racking up just shy of 750 tackles in total and over 2600m gained in possession for averages of 33.8m gained and aWeek 9.7 tackles per game over 7 years. Congratualtions, Tevita! With Jack Iscaro currently playing overseas in the Top 14 in France, the next most capped Old Glory DC player is tackle machine Cory Daniel, on 65 appearances for the team.
The Chicago Hounds
MLR’s league leaders remain undefeated, improving to an 8-0 record after completely demolishing the 2nd placed Seattle Seawolves at the weekend. With more and more of these articles becoming dominated by their achievements, there’s an argument to be made to rename Midweek Milestones to ‘What Record did Chicago Break this Week?’ but for now, we’ll just devote a section to them!
Their huge 57-17 home victory over the Seattle Seawolves marks the largest winning margin of the 2026 season so far, and sets a new franchise record as the largest Chicago Hounds winning margin ever at 40pts. This surpasses the previous record of 37pts set earlier this season against…The Seattle Seawolves. From having never beaten the Seawolves prior to this season, the Chicago Hounds have now swept Seattle with a combined score of 116-39, setting franchise record after franchise record in the process. I’m sure the Seawolves will be playing hard for that 2nd spot to at least guarantee they won’t be playing the Hounds in the Semi-finals!
With 57pts scored, the Chicago Hounds fell just short of their franchise record 61pts scored, set against Anthem RC a few weeks ago. They tallied the same amount of tries as in that game however, 9. The Hounds have now scored 9 tries 4 times in their history, and 3 times in 2026 alone!
MLR’s IG Post: Chicago v Seattle Final Score
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYvMH5kxwZo/?hl=en
One for the Purists
From a high-scoring run & gun game in the Chicago sun, to a low scoring ‘one for the purists’ in the East Coast rain. A floundering Anthem RC side hosted a struggling New England Free Jacks side with both teams hoping to keep their playoff hopes alive. The weather, handling errors, and numerous tries called back after review resulted in a game where points were hard to come by. The score was 7-12 entering the final 10 minutes before the Free Jacks sealed a much needed victory with a Joel Hodgson penalty and final minute score from Cam Gerlach on his Free Jacks debut took the score to 7-20.
This combined score of 27pts is by far the lowest scoring game of the 2026 season so far, with the previous ‘record’ being the 11-27 Seattle Seawolves over the New England Free Jacks back in Week 6. In fact, this is the lowest scoring game in Anthem RC history, surpassing (or failing to surpass?) the 32pts set in a 6-26 home loss to…The New England Free Jacks in Week 10 of the 2025 season. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme!
The Free Jacks now find themselves in a playoff spot, with the bottom 3 teams (including Anthem RC) separated by less than a bonus point victory entering the final two weeks of the regular season. Unfortunately for the reigning champs, they have one of the tougher remaining schedules, facing Seattle away and then Chicago. The Rising Stars are now on a 5 game skid (in a 10 game season…) and face the California Legion next week before what could be a playoff-deciding clash with Old Glory DC in the final Week. The bottom of the table is where the action is this season, but here’s hoping we get a bit more scoring!
Tackle Milestones
As mentioned in the Appearance Achievements section, Jake Turnbull passed 700 career tackles on his 100th MLR appearance, But he wasn’t the only Chicago Hounds player to pass 700 career tackles in their big win over the Seawolves. Nathan ‘Moose’ den Hoedt completed 10 tackles to take his career total to 707! The Brisbane native is in his 7th season in the competition and 1st with the Chicago Hounds, and has averaged 8.7 tackles per game across his 81 game (77 start) MLR career, primarily as a lock. Den Hoedt has recorded 3 100+ tackle seasons, including a career high of 173 in his debut season with the LA Giltinis in 2021. Congratulations, Nathan!
Moving up the tackles leaderboard, Week 9 also gave us a new member of the 1,000 tackle club, the 3rd new addition this season! Prior to 2026, All-Time MLR Tackle Leader Lucas Rumball and MLR Legend Dylan Fawsitt were the only players with over 1,000 completed tackles, but since the start of the season, they have been joined by Johan Momsen, Riekert Hattingh, and now USA Eagle #551 and Old Glory DC stalwart, Cory Daniel!
The wrestler-turned-back row is the 5th player in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles made, and has been an absolute tackle machine since entering MLR in 2021. He’s finished as MLR’s top tackler twice, with 255 tackles in 2022 and a career high 276 tackles in 2024, also finishing 2nd in 2025 with 237 to wrap up his three 230+ tackle seasons. With 15 tackles made for the Flags in Week 9, Daniel has taken the 2026 lead with 125 tackles completed in just 8 games played, and passes 1,000 tackles in 65 MLR matches (60 starts), by far the fewest games to reach 1,000 tackles in MLR history. Not only is Cory Daniel a particularly prolific tackler, but he is remarkably consistent. His 125 tackles in 8 games this season average out to 15.63 per game, which is almost exactly in line (slightly above) his career average of 15.58 per game. Congratulations Cory, the fifth member of MLR’s 1,000 tackle club!
Wrapping Up
Another new Major league Rugby Centurion, another member of the 1,000 tackle club, and another handful of records for the Chicago Hounds! Week 9 of the 2026 MLR Season has set up Week 10 to be make or break for many sides with playoff aspirations, while still giving us statsheads plenty to talk about for Midweek Milestones. Be sure to come back next week to root through all the obscure records and standout stats that Week 10 has to offer!
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article (and the new addition of the Scorigami Summary) on social media, or let me know if you’ve found any standout stats that weren’t mentioned here!
