If Craig Glover's cancer diagnosis had its way, he never would've played his 100th game for his beloved Valley Dragons.
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But that goal of one day pulling on the jersey helped his then 16-year-old self get through.
Twenty years ago he was diagnosed with terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It had him cruelly stranded on 99 games for the Dragons - having started out in the under-8s and progressing all the way through to under-16s.
Even when he got through his experimental stem cell treatment, doctors said his body would never be up to playing again.
To make matters worse - the Dragons didn't have a senior side, so as his recovery continued he turned his attention to coaching - with Canberra Raider Sebastian Kris one of his former pupils.
Then one day down at the oval he saw the Dragons' masters side training.
Given 20 years had passed, he now qualified for the over-35s competition. And his milestone was finally realised at Gowrie Oval on Sunday.
"It was by chance I saw them training when I was at the oval with my own kids and got talking, and said I was interested in playing with them," Glover said.
"Then they followed up and said, 'We're playing this weekend, come and play and get your 100th game'."
Glover ran out to a guard of honour and put the cherry on top of his milestone day by scoring a try.
They even managed to raise some funds for the Love Your Sister cancer charity, a cause obviously close to his heart.
His only regret, he wasn't able to share it with his father Darryl, who died of cancer a decade ago.
But he did get to share it with his two children - Isabel and Lucas.
"A bit sad, because I did all my football stuff with my dad and sad I lost him 10 years ago to cancer, not long after I finished my treatment, so it was a bittersweet feeling," Glover said.
"But having my kids there - I've talked them through the journey and they're involved in a lot of the cancer charity work that I do, which is nice."
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