As a young player coming into the Club, I looked up to Thommo a fair bit.

At first, I just used to talk to him about footy and pick his brains. Since then, we’ve become pretty good mates and spend a fair bit of time together away from the Club. He’s a really good fella.

We’re 10 years apart in age, but we get along well. Maybe, he’s going backwards in age. We’ve got a similar sense of humour and don’t take things too seriously. We like to get away from footy and have a beer together every now and then. He’s a funny guy with a dry sense of humour. But he’s also got a pretty serious side, which you can see on game day.

Any player would love to have Thommo as a teammate. On the footy field he’s a ruthless competitor and leads by his actions – not just on game day but also at training. He’s very demanding of his teammates and helps set the standard for the group.

The younger players are drawn to Thommo and he always has time for them. He looks after the younger players and makes it easy for them to learn. He has a great way of teaching and helping you to understand.  He’s taught me a lot about stoppage work and the different things he does to position himself at contests and win the ball. You only need to watch him, the way he plays and prepares to learn.

For me, the biggest thing about Thommo’s career has been his durability and consistency.

He’s played 87 consecutive games now. Having had a few injuries in my short career, it’s hard to imagine playing that many games in a row. It’s really rare with the physical demands of the game these days. It’s his 14^th year in the system, so he’s a hardened AFL player. He’s really strong through the core and legs, so he’s hardly had any soft-tissue injuries.

Preparation, weights and injury prevention is really important to him. He knows what it takes to get his body right and, as teammates, you just know he’s well prepared for the game. I know Thommo had a few injuries early in his career at Melbourne, so hopefully, one day I can be as durable as he is now.

Thommo has a great ability not just to get up for games each week, but to be a really consistent contributor. He rarely has a bad game.

His physical strength is one of his biggest advantages. He presses pretty big numbers in the gym and is very hard to try to move in a contest. He gets in the gym a bit as you can probably tell! A few years ago, he probably cracked in a bit more, but now that he’s getting older he doesn’t want to be too heavy. He still doesn’t mind getting into the gym and doing a few bicep curls or triceps pull-downs. He loves that.

To reach 250 games is an unbelievable achievement. It’s even more remarkable that Thommo has played 210 of those games for the Crows in less than 10 years – I think he’s missed four or five games the whole time he’s been here.

To come over from Melbourne after a tough start to his AFL career and make a name for himself at Adelaide is a credit to him. I’m disappointed I can’t be out there to play alongside Thommo on Sunday, but I’m sure he’ll play well. He always does.