Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong premiership captain Ben Walsh will notch up an impressive milestone on Saturday as he runs out for his 200th senior game for the Lions against Narrandera.
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A Lions junior, Walsh made his senior debut as a 17-year-old in 2010 and he has notched up 199 appearances in his 13 seasons at GGGM that has included two premierships.
The Walsh family is linked heavily with the history of the club and Ben said it was pretty special to be bringing up the milestone with the Lions.
"It feels good," Walsh said.
"Milestones have never been something I've got too caught up in, but I think 200 is a pretty significant number.
"It means a lot, especially doing it at my junior club and a club I've got so much family history at.
"Dad's the first grade games record holder with 370-odd, but I don't think I'll ever catch him.
"Then I think both my grandfathers played, one played for Grongy-Matong and the other played for Ganmain.
"Even my great-grandfather's did given I've got the bloodlines of Carroll, Walsh, Quinn and Steele, I think all four of them either played for Grongy-Matong or Ganmain as well.
"I guess with all that family history to play 200 games for Ganmain and a lot of that alongside my brother as well it's pretty cool."
Walsh has enjoyed a stellar run at senior level since making his debut and one look over his stats also points to a relatively good run with injuries.
He believed that a fair bit of luck has resulted in him not missing a whole lot of footy through injury.
"I've always said that I don't move fast enough to get injured and it's boded well for me so far," he said.
"I've been pretty lucky, I've had plenty of niggles over the time but nothing that's really held me back from getting out there.
"I think I've missed more games from weddings than injuries, so I'm very lucky.
"I'm just one of those blokes that's had a bit of luck."
After his first year of senior footy for the Lions, Walsh made the move to Canberra for university where he linked up with Queanbeyan for the 2011-12 seasons.
He said it was always his plan to return to GGGM and his playing for the AFL Canberra club was purely circumstantial.
"It was only a circumstance of being in Canberra for uni," he said.
"I just thought for friendships I'd play footy for a year or two, but I always wanted to be back at Ganmain.
"I really enjoyed my time at Queanbeyan, but I probably didn't apply myself as much as I wish I had given the standard of footy.
"I was a kid at uni and I probably didn't make the most of my opportunities.
"It was a great experience, but at the end of the day I wanted to be playing for Ganmain and that happened pretty quickly."
Walsh has put together one of the most impressive resumes in the Riverina League which includes being a two-time best and fairest winner and five-time member of the Team of the Year.
However at the top of that list is his two premiership medals and he revealed it was quite special to lead the Lions to their most recent triumph in 2022.
"It was a pretty cool journey going from that first premiership in my first year to having to wait that period to get to the next one," he said.
"There was lots of ups and downs and changes in playing groups, it was really cool to be a part of that in 2022 just with the core group sticking together for a long time and growing.
"There's been plenty of good memories and good times."
The Lions are currently well on their way to another premiership after having started the season at 9-0.
Walsh has been pretty happy with their start to the season and noted that the team is really enjoying their footy at the moment.
"You can't ask for much more than that really," he said.
"Everyone is loving their footy and playing really positive footy, we're just having a bit of luck with getting our best team on the park most weeks as well.
"There's no complaints but we are definitely not getting ahead of ourselves, hopefully there's still another gear to find as well because we are going to need it I think.
"We can't do much more than what we've done so far but the main thing is we are really enjoying out footy, everyone has bought into Marto's (Sam Martyn) game plan and structure.
"We've just got so many individual players playing really good footy which is great to see."
It's going to be a huge weekend on Saturday at Ganmain Sportsground as the Lions host premiership reunions for their 1944, 1964-65, 1984 and 2004-05 first grade sides.
