He has been playing senior footy for more than 30 years and Mark Stewart has done the calculations to put him on the verge of a massive milestone.
Among them sit a representative All-Australian guernsey, premiership winning strips and even the jumpers he wore in little league.
Few players in the history of Australian rules could boast as many guernseys as the ruck, who will run out on Sunday for his 600th game of adult football.
The big man with sons Rylan, 9, and Kordell, 18. Picture: Mark Wilson
At least, the 50-year-old thinks it is game No.600, after he built a lengthy spreadsheet covering all the teams he has played for, from Geelong’s AFL reserves team, to SANFL club West Adelaide and now at Geelong & District Football League team Corio.
“I have my Geelong one, I have my Vic Country and my All-Australian one there,” Stewart said.
“I even have two little league jumpers, I have a North Melbourne jumper from when I played little league and a Bell Post Hill one from when I played Bell Post Hill little league.”
A little bit of luck and a heck of a lot of clean living has played a part in the big man’s incredible durability on the footy field, as Stewart doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke, or even touch tea or coffee.
Mark Stewart wins a hard ball.
“I missed one game last year through injury and there was one at Imps (Colac Imperials) where I was knocked out and had the next week off,” he said.
“I have played injured but not where I couldn’t move. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink coffee or tea.
“I don’t know if it’s to do with the alcohol. A lot of guys finish a game of football and have a few bevs and wake up very sore the next day.
“Recovery wise, I look after myself and go in the water after games but I would just say it’s a bit of luck and probably the not drinking or smoking.”
Mark Stewart takes front position for the GFL.
The 198cm man mountain once said he would stop playing once he hit 50, but he still enjoys helping out the youngsters at Corio.
The lure of a rare milestone also kept him ticking along, and he says he will hit 600 games in “pretty good form”.
“To me I am just still young and still playing,” he said.
“Now you think about it a bit more, you realise it is a lot of games and a lot of years to play.
“When someone asked me how many games I had played, I thought maybe 500-odd, then I calculated them up and thought ‘jeez, it is nearly 600’. So I thought I may as well play at least to that and see how I go.”
Stewart is no reserves-grade trundler, having won a Mathieson Medal playing for St Albans in 1998 as the best player in the Geelong Football League and a Whitley Medal with Corio in 1992 as best in the Geelong & District.
Rising over the top playing for the BFL.
He was a constant in representative sides and swears he was within reach of an AFL game in the early ‘90s when playing with Geelong, as Cats assistant Jeff Gieschan told him he would have played had he not been on the supplementary list.
For a man who has played more football than almost anybody to ever grace the field, Stewart still thinks his career was always a step behind.
He missed out at Geelong and flirted with a United States college punting career, but the infrastructure wasn’t in place yet.
Stewart even wishes he was around for the local football statistical revolution: “there would have been a lot of hitouts”.
“I have always said I have been a bit early for all the things that have come up,” he said.
“Would I change anything? Probably when I was at Geelong, you are young and don’t understand the work you have to do to make it.”
The ruck just keeps on going on. Picture: Mark Wilson
Stewart rates Geelong champion Garry Hocking as the best player he saw, and Hocking called the ruck to congratulate him this week ahead of his milestone.
A four-goal, best-on-ground performance for Newcomb in the 2007 BFL grand final is his favourite game of the 599 to this point.
Stewart coaches his son’s under-10 side and would like to get into coaching, but playing still gets in the way.
And even as he hits his rare milestone, he can still see himself kicking on.