Red and WHITE – Craig White column 150th game

IT IS a bit flattering actually reaching this milestone. A little bit of fuss gets made about you and it has been something I've been trying to work towards over the last five or six years.

Once you get to 50 or 60 games you have the goal to get to 100 to get your name on the locker, and then once you get to 100 you have the goal to get life membership at 150. I qualify for that now and hopefully it occurs next year.

When I went over to Sydney last year it wasn’t something I thought about to make sure I came back to reach 150 games originally. It was a big decision when leaving whether or not I would stick around to get that life membership or not, but when it came up that the chance was there to come back from Sydney that was definitely a big drawcard as to why I did.

Where I played with the Balmain Dockers last year I would liken that competition over there to the A-grade amateurs over here. The fitness levels, intensity, skill level and all that is a level below the WAFL and you kind of take for granted the levels you were at two years ago because of that.

Personally I would only call my season average to fair at this stage. Slowly over the last three or four weeks I've been starting to feel better with more game time and getting more run into my legs. It's probably been harder than I expected to get back into the swing of things but now that I'm back into it with a good base under me it's starting to come a little easier.

I've played in a lot of big milestones in my time at the club. There was David Gault's 200th, Toby McGrath's 200th, Ray Smithers' 150th and there's been plenty more. You look up to those sort of guys and I have a lot of respect for them, and hopefully the young guys see me reaching 150 games and want to get there themselves one day in their careers.

Personally it will mean a lot to me on Saturday. It's something that I have looked forward to and it has driven me to play footy. I don’t think it's a massive thing for the group even though certain boys will draw what they can from it, but at the end of the day it's just another game and one where we will be trying to get ourselves off the bottom of the ladder.

I've already chatted to Hase and asked that nothing too big is made of the deal. Hase said he will do his due diligence in doing a little bit, but that's part and parcel of a milestone. I definitely like the low key approach to let the team go about their business as usual.

I'm glad it is going to be here at Fremantle Oval as well. My 100th game was at Claremont and we got touched up by 102 points back in 2010 so hopefully at home against Perth we can be competitive and give ourselves a chance come the final siren.

Looking back on my career at this point, it has been very good and I have been lucky enough to have a lot of very good coaches over the time with Roger Kerr, Glen Davies and John Dimmer. That period of 2003, 2004 and 2005 was very special and then I have just been grateful that we have had a lot of successful at the club in my time.

I've been really lucky in my career to play in premierships and they are amazing, but all finals footy is something you cherish. We played finals in every year except one under John so that's always special and so are the Foundation Derbies.

This year's win would actually rate right up there with the top few wins I've had and over my career those hard fought wins stick out when we've been underdogs. There was a game against East Perth on a wet, rainy night and there's been times when we have been down and out and I will always remember those fondly. 

We are going through a tough time at the moment, but hopefully the circle will change and the boys will be back up at the top in the years to come. It is bitter sweet at the moment. You can't be at the top forever, but we definitely won't be jumping off ship and us experienced guys are doing all we can to help teach these young guys get the best out of themselves to make sure we aren’t down here for too long.

I think we just have to keep working on getting a consistent effort. Hase has been driving that for the last five or six weeks after we did have a good patch of form, but it's about sustaining that for longer periods of time. It is slowly coming, but it's definitely still a work in progress.

By Craig White