There's ample motivation for Andrew Fitz to bat on.
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The 47-year-old will front up, take guard and adjust the peak of his cap for his 400th club game at Trevallyn against Perth on Saturday.
Far just from playing and missing, Fitz has firmly got his eye in for a long innings.
The target is to play 500 games, but after ticking over 9000 runs recently, wanting to reach five figures is on the wishlist while he is just four grabs shy of 200 catches.
"I just want to keep having fun with my mates because Trevallyn is a great place to play - we play hard on the ground and off the ground when we have a beer and tell a few stories," Fitz said.
Fitz landed at the second oldest TCL club in 1996-97.
But Mowbray was the first stop on the cricket journey at just 10 years of age before moving onto Riverside at the end of his teens.
It took a bit of convincing from indoor cricket mates to coax the lanky left-hander onto hard wicket, but some 23 seasons later Fitz looks well entrenched up the hill.
"I have grown to love the club so much," Fitz said.
"I really couldn't imagine now being anywhere else.
"I did leave for one year to coach and I realised I made a huge mistake."
Not just because that one summer he had missed out on the 2013-14 premiership.
There's just enough gentle ribbing to remind Fitz of his place in his second stint.
"What the boys are saying that it's my 100th game this week because I left after 300 games," he laughed.
Before and since then, Fitz has been a regular Premier League fixture for around 350 games despite at least once captaining its A Reserve, B grade and C grade as well.
That value was highlighted by a 101 in the B grade season opener that swiftly earned the veteran a T20 promotion.
"That's just the great thing about Trevallyn - it's a very down-to-earth club," he said.
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Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
