Dennington's Michael Phillips to bring up game 300 on Saturday in Warrnambool and District league

The Dennington Football Netball Club great will mark a major milestone on Saturday against Timboon Demons in front of his home crowd, running out in his beloved jumper for the 300^th time.

A one-club player, former coach and dedicated clubman, it's been a journey of resilience and determination.

"It's probably taken a little longer than I would have liked to get there, it probably should have happened three years ago," he told The Standard.

"I got injured and COVID has wiped out a couple of years of footy so I'm happy to get there, it's a pretty good achievement I guess."

The near two-decade veteran has played all of his senior football with Dennington since crossing over as a junior from Port Fairy as a 17-year-old to join his older brothers Wayne and Mark at the club.

It's fair to say he hasn't looked back and is proud to call himself a one-club player.

"It is unique these days (being a one-club player) - I haven't really thought of leaving to be honest, I came close once but that was the only time I thought about it.

"From that point of view, I just love the club, I started going there when I was nine or 10 when my oldest brother was playing and I've basically been at the club every weekend since.

"I feel loyalty to the club, the easiest thing to do would have been to leave. We were a pretty tight knit group for 10 or 12 years and for various reasons people went in different directions.

"In the last couple of years we've had a lot leave and there hasn't been a lot of help, but as a club we're at a stage we're it is starting to look really good again."

Having coached most grades at the club and played senior football for almost 20 years, he's seen it all and said the club was doing a lot right under coach Ben Thornton.

In his view, the club is turning the corner both on and off field.

"Ben has done a good job in bringing people back and bringing new faces in so there's a great buzz around the club," he said.

"We're on the up, this year there's a lot of young kids that have come back which is good in a sense, and he's recruited others around 18 to 21 that are all pretty close.

"Some of them can really play - when I took over as coach I got as many kids as possible and some ability wise they weren't where they needed to be, but mates bring mates.

"From Ben's point of view he's had a clean slate which has helped."

300 games of football provides a lot of highlights, and inevitably plenty of lows in between.

But what are the memories he treasures the most?

"I've played senior footy since 18 to 37, so I've coached most grades - I probably won't talk about the four losing prelims and four losing grand finals but there's been a lot of close mates that have come out of my time at the club," he said.

"There's probably six or seven that are fairly tight so those bonds created are what I can think of."

In a day of milestones, teammate Sean Fogarty will play game 150, a feat bequeathing him life membership.

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