IN THE lead-up to his 150th AFL match, Sydney Swans forward Nick Davis was talking like a reformed man.

The 27-year-old was already speaking about playing 200 and 250 games – quite a turnaround for a man whose career appeared at the crossroads last season.

Now, in arguably his best physical shape and with a more mature outlook on football and life, the Swans sharpshooter is looking forward to running out in his milestone match against the Kangaroos at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

And he knows the script hasn’t always gone to plan on his journey to 150 matches.

“It’s been a long time coming with a few injuries and a couple of things that happened last year and it’s good to be able to chalk it up,” Davis said.

“It’s been full of excitement. Ups and downs and in-betweens.

“I’ve had fun doing it. If I wasn’t having fun then there’s no point really doing it, so hopefully from 150 to 200 and 200 to 250 will be a bit smoother sailing.”

Davis rated the Swans’ 2005 premiership as his career highlight, while a special individual performance in a must-win semi-final against Geelong the same year also rated a mention among his memorable moments.

“Personally, probably getting the team there in the Geelong game was a personal highlight,” Davis said.

While the unpredictable forward is best-known for his efforts close to goal, he says the Swans’ culture and team-first approach has made him a better player – on and off the field.

“You can be invaluable and you might not have the best game,” he said.

“Being a little bit fitter now I can sort of not put all my eggs in the attacking basket and do a little bit more defensively and that’s what I’ll be doing.

“If I didn’t embrace the club culture then I wouldn’t be here and there’s no doubt that it’s helped me on-field and off-field and (with) sort of settling down and trying to not be the larrikin and the ratbag all the time.

“And I’ve taken that from here to outside life.”

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.