It’s taken six years and a few painful hurdles, but Geelong VFL midfielder Jay Cheep will play his 50^th VFL match tomorrow morning against North Ballarat at Skilled Stadium.

Cheep turned recruiters’ heads in 2002 after a season that earned him TAC Cup Team of the Year selection and third place in the Calder Cannons’ best and fairest.

After missing out in that year’s national draft, Essendon invited him to train for a place on its rookie list, before he succumbed to the dreaded osteitis pubis and missed the cut.

A year later, despite missing the entire 2003 season, Richmond came knocking, but ultimately decided against Cheep after he developed a severe case of shin splints.

Cheep finally overcame his injuries in 2005, the year he joined the Cats after some encouragement from VFL coach Leigh Tudor, who was Cheep’s assistant coach at Calder.

Cheep, who made his VFL debut in round two 2005, admits his 50-match milestone seemed lights years away after his two-injury plagued seasons.

“It did, for sure, especially getting the premiership last year, 50 games is a big bonus,” Cheep said.

“I’ve had to work hard and try and get as fit as I could to stay injury-free.”

In a sign of his consistency, Cheep has enjoyed an injury-free run at Geelong and has achieved the milestone amid strong competition for a place in Geelong’s VFL team.

With Geelong boasting an envious run without injury since 2006, often less than six of the club’s 21 VFL-listed players get a match each week.

If you don’t play your role, someone else gets a crack, which makes Cheep’s longevity in the team even more impressive.

“I think that’s it, that’s probably the most positive thing,” Cheep said.

“It’s been a very successful team, we’ve made two grand finals in two years and for those two years I’ve pretty much been consistently playing in the side.”

Gone are the days where the major role of the club’s top-up players is to keep the bench warm for the resting AFL players.

Today, much of the VFL team’s structure and flexibility revolves around the young talent on the club’s VFL list.

Having negotiated some crucial midfield roles over the past three seasons, Cheep said he felt a sense of belonging in a team dominated by AFL-listed players.

“I think whenever you go into the middle with a (Brent) Prismall or a (Shannon) Byrnes, you’ve just got to play your role and that’s what (Tudor) entrusts me to do,” he said.

“To get trusted to go into the midfield is a big thing, especially with such a strong midfield we’ve got.”

But as he discovered so bluntly in September 2006, regardless of form, opportunities only arise out of injuries and suspensions to AFL-listed players.

Despite starring in Geelong’s first two VFL finals, he felt the inevitable selection axe when Nick Batchelor returned from a long-term hamstring injury.

Cheep’s form commanded walk-up selection, but ultimately, club policy dictated Batchelor took precedence.

“It was frustrating and disappointing (at the time) because I did play ok in (the first two finals), and to get dropped, it was just frustrating and I suppose that spurred me on,” he said.

Cheep got his chance at redemption last year, when he was one of only four VFL-listed players to play in the Cats’ VFL premiership.

Cheep believes there is still plenty of sting left in the Cats’ tail this season, but concedes his side must beat top-four fancy North Ballarat tomorrow.

“It’s definitely a big match … and I reckon if we can just win this one, it will be a big stepping stone in terms of confidence of the team as well, to string two together,” he said.

“If we just click, I think, we’ll just go on to bigger and better things … if everyone plays their role, we’ll make the finals and give it a good shake I reckon.”

Tudor said his side would use last week’s impressive performance against Box Hill as a springboard into tomorrow’s must-win clash.

“North Ballarat is always a good side, they’re a well-structured side with a lot of experienced players there to show the way,” Tudor said.

“I really think it will be game on down here, our boys are pretty keen at the moment, they’re really keen to back up from last week’s game.

“It will be interesting, they’ve got a pretty good side in again, and so have we, so it will be a good game.”

Rookie-listed defender Liam Bedford continues to be hampered by the hamstring injury he sustained four weeks ago, but looks set for a return after next week’s bye.