A PLETHORA of early draft picks have come and gone at Greater Western Sydney without leaving much of an imprint at the club, but Lachie Whitfield has always been adamant he wasn't going to be one of them.

On Saturday night in Adelaide, Whitfield, the club's No.1 draft pick from 2012, will become just the third Giant to reach the 200-game milestone after Callan Ward and Toby Greene.

As a two-time best and fairest winner and All-Australian, he is fitting of such a landmark at GWS, yet is unashamedly yearning for so much more.

There is "fire left in the belly", he says, to achieve the ultimate and while he admits he did wonder in recent times if that moment had passed him by, the Giants' resurgence under Adam Kingsley has Whitfield riding a wave of momentum with as much vigour as any other time in his distinguished career.

On Saturday night, he gets to revel in that in a milestone moment, and it's one the Victorian always envisaged securing in the orange and charcoal of GWS.

"Even before I got to the footy club, I wanted to be a one-club player and I had a pretty good idea I was going to be moving to Sydney so once I wrapped my head around that, I thought, 'let's do this forever'," Whitfield told AFL.com.au.

"It's a pretty cool achievement to be the third person to do it (at the club), but it's snuck up, I reckon. Milestone games are something that you want to do as a kid. I'm proud of it and I'm lucky that I've done it all at one club."

There can be little argument over the Giants' call to take the smooth-moving Dandenong Stingrays product with the first pick at the draft 11 years ago.

He has delivered on the hype and expectation in his time at GWS, while staying the course at the club as a Giants star. 

The 28-year-old may present a cruisy persona both on and off the field, but there is still fierce ambition as he takes stock of his career.

"If I take a step back now, I'm proud of what I've achieved, but I still haven't achieved what I wanted to achieve, if that makes sense," he said.

"As a kid, I grew up wanting to be a one-club player that wins Grand Finals, plays 300 games, wins Norm Smith (Medals), like every other kid does when they're 12 or 13 years old.

"Obviously there's been milestones and achievements along the way, but I still haven't won a flag. There's still a lot of fire left in the belly to succeed."

There have been challenges for Whitfield along the way.

The 2019 Grand final defeat, and broader failure to capitalise on the promise of 2016-19 period when the Giants were perennial contenders, are chief among the on-field disappointments.

Off the field, in 2017 he missed the first seven games of the season after being found guilty of conduct unbecoming following attempts to evade a possible drugs test. 

"AFL is all-consuming, every minute of every day, it's part of your life," Whitfield said.

"Whether it be at training, at a game or just standards of living off the field. Because you're a role model in the community and sometimes you just want to be a normal kid with your mates and that these standards can get a bit grey.

"Obviously, I've made some mistakes along the way, but they've also helped me grow, especially over the last probably, four or five years. I feel like I've done a fair bit of maturing.

"There's probably things that I would do different if I had my time again, but I've still learned some really valuable lessons along the way."

There have been plenty of learnings on the field as well – mainly about how quickly it can all turn.

The Giants were seemingly on a fast path to the ultimate triumph in 2019 but there have been just two finals matches in the seasons since.

2023 wasn't promising much either until the last six weeks, which have seen the Giants emerge as a serious September threat and put some wind back in Whitfield's sails.

"Footy toys with your emotions a lot. It's never going as good as you think and it's never going as bad as you think.

"But it can get to you. The lows can be pretty low, and the highs can definitely be pretty high at the same time. It's a rollercoaster.

"When you're out of form, sometimes you forget how to play the game. It's just a weird thing.

"But then, you get good youth around you, and they bring you back up and you have a good game and then you're like, 'Oh yeah, that's how it works.' It's just a funny game, footy, it can really, really change at the drop of a hat."

There have been a few positional changes for the versatile Whitfield as well.

After stints on the wing and even at half-forward in recent times, he's been brough back to his All-Australian half-back role of 2018 under Kingsley.

And while his start to the season was slow by his high standards, he has flourished in line with the Giants' recent rise up the ladder.

Whitfield's move into defence has seen the goals dry up but after kicking three at the Adelaide Oval last year, Whitfield hopes that's a good omen for his milestone game.

"Yeah, I think I've only kicked one goal this year, so I'm probably due," he joked.

"I've liked playing at the Adelaide Oval and so does the team. We've had some pretty good success there over the last five years, even though we've had some down years, we've still been able to get some wins over there.

"We're going over there with a lot of confidence, and we know the sort of swag that they have, they're a really exciting team to watch. But I feel like we're exciting too, so it should be a pretty entertaining game."

The Giants will be taking plenty of momentum with them to tackle the Crows but the Whitfield support crew for his 200th will be reduced due to a logistical mishap.

A suspension for round 16 meant Whitfield's milestone was pushed back a week but with his close friends having already booked their flights and accommodation for the clash with Hawthorn that was meant to mark the occasion, they decided to come anyway.

The 'Whitfield 200' shirts were crossed out with '199' written in their place but thankfully for the Giants dasher, his family will be doubling up this week.

"My schoolmates definitely took a few liberties over the weekend, so I don't think they'll be able to get out of the house two weekends in a row, but it'll still be a good travelling party."