Andy Stevens set to play his 400th senior game for St Pats FC

The 37-year-old joins a very exclusive club featuring the likes of Robert Tuksar, Cade Webb, Paul Hayes, Darrell Mills, Matt Campbell and Kelvin Davies as some of the only players to reach the milestone in the Albury-Wodonga Football Association.

It's fitting that Stevens' achievement will be celebrated at Alexandra Park for the visit of Melrose.

"Doing it at one club is probably the proudest part for me," Stevens said.

"We're a club that hasn't had a lot of success and I had offers to leave and go elsewhere but when half-decent players leave, it just makes that club struggle even more, so that was my incentive.

"I wanted to show my children that just because things are hard, you don't always take the easy option and go somewhere else, you stay and find a way to make it better where you are.

"I love the club, I've made really good friends here and I had no real reason to go anywhere else."

Stevens' first love was rugby but when "everyone else grew and I didn't" he decided to swap the oval ball for a round one, making his senior debut aged 16 in 2002.

"I remember being at school when I got confirmation I'd be playing," he said.

"All I wanted to do was play seniors, that was everyone's goal back then.

"Back in the day, it felt like there were a lot more mature, older men playing so a 16-year-old playing seniors wasn't all that common."

The day St Pats, having finished eighth, knocked league champions Boomers out in the first round of finals, sticks in the mind for Stevens although it's the less tangible things which he treasures most of all.

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"Success on the park hasn't been what you'd want," he admitted.

"But it's the way you gauge it.

"I've made lifelong friends through the club and I'll be having beers with them for years to come and you can't do that with a premiership.

"I grew up within the walls of this club and there's people who helped me mature into an adult so I look at that as being a success."

Stevens' class on the ball is undiminished by age, nor his passion for the sport.

"It's turned for me now," he said.

"I had those older blokes show me the right to play and the right way to do things outside the club and I'm trying to do that now with the younger blokes here, share my experience of what the game looks like and trying to improve them.

"My kids are now coming through as well so I want to show them that once you commit, you commit for that year at the very least and do what's required.

"I want to make sure the club's in a good spot before I wander off into over-35s."

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