"Play for the name on the front of the shirt and they'll remember the name on the back of the shirt."
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The famous sporting quote was made by former Arsenal captain Tony Adams.
While names don't appear on the back of BFNL jumpers, the way Nick Stagg has played his first 199 games for Sandhurst ensures Dragons fans won't forget the number eight anytime soon.
The loyal midfielder reaches the 200-game milestone on Saturday when his Dragons tackle South Bendigo at the QEO.
"I've been at the club the whole my life and I get to become a life member of the club which is special to me,'' Stagg said.
"The Sandhurst footy club is a big part of my life. My old man played there when he was a young fella and my brothers played there.
"It all comes down to the people at the club. The committee, the volunteers and the supporters have always been great to me.
"I get to play footy with my best mates and train and play on the best ground in country Victoria, it sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
That pride in his performance and the club has made Stagg a favourite with the coaches he's had in his 11 seasons with Sandhurst.
"Staggy's endeavour can never be questioned,'' Brett Fitzpatrick said.
"The way he plays he's probably fortunate that he's made it to 200 games. He puts his body on the line for the club every week."
That was epitomised in the lead-up to the 2014 BFNL grand final.
Stagg had suffered a shoulder injury in the preliminary final win over Gisborne and was in doubt to play Strathfieldsaye in the decider.
After a sleepless week treating the shoulder day and night, Stagg was put through a fitness test by Fitzpatrick on the Friday night.
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The team-mate Fitzpatrick chose to test out Stagg's shoulder - Blair Holmes. The best and most ferocious tackler in the side.
"We gave Staggy a good working over and he deserved the opportunity to play the next day,'' Fitzpatrick said.
"That was testament to him. He worked his backside off to get the chance to play. It showed what the club meant to him."
After a pre-game jab to dull the pain in his shoulder, Stagg faced another significant hurdle on the field in the form of Steven Baker.
The former St Kilda hard man had been suspended for 28 weeks in his AFL career and he had Stagg's shoulder in his sights.
"Strathfieldsaye knew I had a dodgy shoulder and he (Baker) came at me,'' Stagg recalled.
"I decided that if he was going to have a crack at me, I was going to have a crack back.
"It might not have been the smartest thing I've ever done."
The photo of Stagg going toe-to-toe with Baker still gets a laugh out of his team-mates to this day.
The physical and mental pain of the 2014 and 2015 grand final defeats helped Stagg and the Dragons take the extra step in 2016 and win the premiership.
In his first season in charge of the Dragons, coach Wayne Primmer made changes at the start of 2016, including a fresh challenge for Stagg.
"I needed someone in the forward line that was able to lock the ball in the forward line,'' Primmer said.
"Staggy was a good tackler and he took it on board and he helped us become a better side.
"I labelled him "the barometer" because when he went well in the forward line, with locking the ball in and laying tackles, we went well.
"What I wanted him to do was probably a bit against the grain, but he took it on board and became really good at it.
"Sometimes in bush footy it can be hard to get players to change their roles, but he was prepared to do it for the team and it worked really well for us."
The 2016 premiership remains the highlight of Stagg's career.
He's hopeful the Dragons can grab another one before he hangs up the boots.
"I'd love to get at least one more, but I know how hard they are to win," Stagg said.
At age 28, Stagg becomes just the 19th player in Sandhurst's proud history to play 200 games with the Dragons.
300 games might not be out of the question.
"I'd love to get to 300, but I'm not sure if the body will last that long,'' Stagg said.
"There's a bit of a joke around the club that I rarely train on a Tuesday night because I've always got a corkie or something similar.
"Maybe I'll concentrate on 250 games and we'll see how the body is then."
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