Tara Murray
When Ben Jolley first returned to Williamstown at the start of this year, the midfielder didn’t want to speak about getting to 300 Victorian Football League games.
Having been on the cusp of achieving the milestone in recent years with Port Melbourne and then Essendon, Jolley was more focused on playing each week.
On Saturday, he became just the third player behind Billy Swan and Fred Cook to reach the 300 game milestone in the VFL-Victorian Football Association history.
Jolley following the match said his mind turned to the milestone the last few weeks.
“The last few weeks, definitely last week,” he said.
“Then once we go through that and the momentum of the week building, that sense of inevitably was actually nice to take out the uncertainty that was at the start of the year.
“It was great, there is no way that I can really complicate it.
“A win, the milestone it played out as you would have liked it to have been.”
Jolley started his VFL career with Bendigo Bombers, after being taken in the 2005 rookie draft by Essendon.
He played four AFL games before being delisted by the Bombers.
Jolley stayed with Bendigo before moving to Williamstown in 2008, where he would stay until 2018.
In that time Jolley would captain the club to a premiership.
While many expected Jolley to retire when he left Williamstown, he instead made the move to Port Melbourne before returning to Essendon last season.
This year he returned home to Williamstown to help get the club back on track.
Jolley said it had surprised him how much he had enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on his career and then be able to go out and play on the weekend.
He said he never thought when he was running out for his first game that he would still be playing 300 games later.
“The whole reflection side of things, I was never going to be a superstar AFL player,” he said.
“Yes, I may have etched out a few more games if the timing was different.
“I think this was my go. I’m just really pleased to have stuck at it and made the most of it and played at some great clubs over the period.”
The milestone was marked at Williamstown against the Northern Bullants, where Jolley has played so many of his games.
He started the game in the middle of the ground, before spending plenty of time on the wing.
Jolley finished the match in the forward line with the crowd willing him to kick a goal. The man himself joked he was put forward to try and get him a kick.
Jolley finished with 15 disposals as the Seagulls won, 15.18 (108)-5.3 (33). Jolley said he was happy to finish the game on the ground.
“We knew it was going to be a very physical and hard game,” he said.
“If we stuck to our guns we would potentially allow ourselves to grind out a bit of a victory and that is how it played out for the majority of the first half.
“Then a bit of scoreboard pressure made the second half a bit more doable.”
The win keeps the Seagulls in the mix with a group of sides fighting for the top four. Jolley said they knew that they’re heading in the right direction.
“To be finding ourselves in the mix to certainly play finals, is something we now that we have to start to solidify,” he said.
“We need to build that belief within the team that we have the ability to try and compete with those top sides.
“We’re under no illusions that there’s still quite a lot of improvement.”
Jolley planned to spend the post match with his teammates new and old along with his family to mark the occasion.
If things go to plan, Jolley will again be centre of attention as he plays game 303, a new league record.
Jolley said he hadn’t given that much thought yet.
“A little bit now,” he said. “We have byes in between and all that is happening.
“It is for me ensuring that I’m getting up to play all those games as have been the focus all year.
“All things going to plan the Southport one looking like it will be that
“It was more about 300 first and standing here now it’s more the satisfaction and sense of relief, hoping it will be the same as that.”