Mark Armstrong will never forget the sight of a young Brett Fruend running around the streets of Queanbeyan when he was nothing more than "skin and bones".
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That work ethic transformed Fruend from a "goalsneak" that battled for a senior berth into a Queanbeyan Tigers great.
Fruend will play his 200th club game for the Tigers when they face the Belconnen Magpies in the final round of the AFL Canberra regular season at Margaret Donoghoe Oval on Saturday.
Armstrong played with and coached Fruend for a large part of his career, and "Merv" laughs he wasn't always the bona fide star of the competition we see today.
"There wasn’t much of him, he was skin and bones when he first came through. He probably wouldn’t mind me saying he wasn’t the hardest working young guy coming through," Armstrong said.
"I reckon the penny dropped somewhere along the way, because he turned up one pre-season and all of a sudden he was a running machine.
"He’d gone from the back of the group to the front of the group in a reasonably short period of time. I’d seen him through that summer running the streets, and I reckon that became the foundation for his football, for his ability to cover territory well.
"He’s an elite kick on both sides of the body and there is not a lot of guys who can do that. They’re the sorts of things that stand out to me when he was a young guy breaking into the senior side."
Armstrong will be there cheering for Fruend on Saturday - plenty of Tigers greats will be on hand as the club celebrates its 1988 and 1998 premiership reunions.
With Fruend's milestone comes life membership and induction into the Tigers' wall of fame, and a plaque on the club's walk of fame.
For a club junior that has spent the bulk of his career with the Tigers barring a stint in rugby league with the Queanbeyan Kangaroos and a season in country football, that's about as good as it gets.
"We might not be the richest club or have the best facilities, but with the people we’ve got around the club, it’s just home," Fruend said.
"They’re like a family. We’ve had a few players that have gone off to try other things and they always seem to come back to Queanbeyan.
"The culture and the people we have around the club is really good so that’s probably the main thing about Queanbeyan."
Belconnen are the only top four team Queanbeyan has not beaten this season and this clash will go a long way towards deciding the minor premiership.
The first-placed Magpies will likely need a win to secure hosting rights for the major semi-final, given Ainslie are level on wins ahead of their clash with the lowly Gungahlin Jets.
Queanbeyan are set to host the minor semi-final against the Eastlake Demons, who will first have to contend with a Tuggeranong Hawks outfit searching for its first win of the season at Greenway Oval.
It means the Tigers are in the hunt to deliver a third premiership medallion to Fruend's trophy case, to hang next to the ones he earned in 2012 and 2015.
"It would be pretty good to be able to get another one. The way this competition is, anyone can beat anyone on their day," Fruend said.
"We’ve just got to knuckle down and do what we do best, and hopefully in that last game we’re there and we’re in front when the final siren goes."
AFL CANBERRA ROUND 15
Saturday: Ainslie Tricolours v Gungahlin Jets at Alan Ray Oval, 1.30pm. Queanbeyan Tigers v Belconnen Magpies at Margaret Donoghoe Oval, 1.30pm. Tuggeranong Hawks v Eastlake Demons at Greenway Oval, 3.30pm.
