The milestone will be of extra significance considering McGrath is now eligible for Lions Life Membership at season’s end.
To qualify for Life Membership with the Lions, a player must be at the Club for a minimum of ten seasons - McGrath is serving his tenth - and play at least 150 senior games.
While the modest 27 year-old remains more focussed on performing his role this weekend against the Hawks, he spared a moment to reflect on his upcoming achievement.
“The milestone to me means 10 years of hard work,” McGrath said.
“I didn't think I was going to get here, but it has finally come around. I finally get to become a Life Member of this Footy Club.”
“It has taken a long time, but it has definitely been worth it.”
He now hopes that he can forge ahead and further establish himself as one of the merged Club greats.
“I really want to be a one club player,” he said. “Touch wood my body stays healthy and I can hopefully reach the 200-game milestone.”
However, McGrath’s feat has not been reached without a few setbacks along the way - from considering a move back home to suffering some serious injuries.
“I did have some doubts early on in my career when the team was going so well,” he said.
“At one stage I was pretty sure I was going to leave the Club and try and better my career elsewhere. But after sitting down with my partner I thought I would stick out for another year and my footy has really turned around since then.”
“Then I went through a pretty bad hamstring tear in 2006 and some players don’t really recover from that,” he said. “I also broke my arm in 2007.”
“Last year I actually managed to play every game for the first time in my career.”
Aside from being part of the Club’s third successive Grand Final triumph, McGrath nominated the 2003 Preliminary Final against the Sydney Swans as his career highlight.
“We were in front for most of the game, but they came back at us and by three-quarter time we were only leading by a couple of points,” he said.
“Sydney’s home crowd was right behind them but we still managed to get up and win. The whole next week leading up to the Grand Final was a huge buzz.”
Throughout his 10 season at the Club, he has played under two of the most revered players of all time - Leigh Matthews and Michael Voss.
“Leigh gave us the mindset of doing the hard things and to always put your head over the footy,” McGrath said.
“It has been pretty much the same message with Vossy with regards to putting your head over the footy. If you don't put your head over the ball and don’t work hard on getting your own contested ball, then you won't be at the Club for long.”
Looking ahead to this weekend, McGrath is prepared for a tough encounter against the in-form Hawks.
“Hawthorn have really hit the ground running and have just come off a seven-game winning streak, so it is going to be a tough game,” he said.
“We have set ourselves for the cold conditions and expect them to play a good one-on-one style of football.”
