Well, that game has finally arrived and I’m pretty stoked.
It’s a big achievement, and I can’t wait to get out there against Richmond on Saturday night.
Playing 200 games is pretty hard to do. I think I’ll be only the 23rd Geelong player to reach that mark, so I feel both fortunate and proud to be able to play so many games.
When I arrived at the club as a skinny teenager, there’s no way I thought I’d ever achieve the things I have in my 10 years.
I’ve won a best and fairest, now played 200 games, and of course, reached the pinnacle by playing in a premiership.
A lot of this I put down to playing under Bomber.
I’ve read some of the stuff he’s said about me this week, which obviously makes me feel pretty good. He’s probably only saying it to be nice though!
I can tell you there’s a lot of mutual respect there.
I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Bomber.
Bomber and Brendan McCartney are responsible for moulding me into the player I am.
When I arrived at the club Gary Ayres was the coach and I only played five or six games, so things weren’t working out great for me back then.
When Gary left and Bomber arrived, I started playing senior footy pretty much straight away.
I grew up barracking for Essendon and was at the MCG in 1993 the day my current coach held up the premiership cup with Kevin Sheedy.
As a teenager, I’d idolised him and other guys like Tim Watson and Gavin Wanganeen, so I was pretty rapt when he took over as coach.
Given where the club is today, I’m obviously thankful he’s still our coach and not elsewhere.
We’re in a great position again this year to challenge for the flag, having got over a couple of big weeks of footy.
Last week we were good enough to beat the Hawks, and I think it was our will to win in the last quarter that was the difference.
We had a few great players out, and we also lost Chappy for a fair chunk of the game.
I enjoyed playing on Buddy, although he is hard to keep up with – there’s no doubt about that.
He’s a freakish athlete. He’s just so tall and quick off the mark.
I think he’s got an edge on everyone he plays on in terms of athletic ability, so you’ve just got to do your best and hope the guys further afield can put some pressure on their midfield.
Luckily, our guys were pretty good all night.
Hopefully, they’re just as good against the Tigers this week.
Last time we played them at Telstra Dome we gave them a fair touch up. But they’ve improved a lot since then, so I don’t think the match will be quite as one-sided this time.
One thing I do know is that despite it being more than likely that we’re going to finish on top, there’ll be no letting up from the guys.
We all just want to keep winning.
I hope we do on Saturday night, so I can celebrate in style.
