Collingwood great Steele Sidebottom will etch his name into the history books on Sunday as he plays his 300th AFL game against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium.
In doing so, he’ll become the fourth Magpie to break the 300-game barrier, joining the likes of Tony Shaw, Gordon Coventry and teammate Scott Pendlebury as black-and-white triple-centurions.
While he’s clearly edging towards the back end of his career, Collingwood coach Craig McRae is thrilled with how well the 32-year-old is playing, so much so that opposition clubs are still trying to nullify his influence.
“He's playing some sensational footy, he’s so important to us,” McRae told SEN The Run Home.
“I know the opposition try to take things away from him.
“When we played Sydney, they tried to do a few things because his influence is so important for us.”
Still achieving new heights in his 14th season, some are stunned that Sidebottom is still such a big contributor after he had a down 2021 season where he picked up no Brownlow votes.
With McRae joining the club at the end of that down season, he looked back at the first meeting he had with Sidebottom which may have sparked him to recapture his best footy.
“I remember sitting down once I got the job, and I sat down with every player for 40 minutes on the couch and, I said, ‘Well, how are you going?’,” McRae said.
“I had a relationship with Steele and the words came out his mouth that he wasn't playing his footy like he wanted to play.
“One thing that came out was that he had stopped putting the time into his fundamentals they were his words, not mine that, ‘I feel like I need to put more time into my fundamentals of the game’.
“That’s like the ground balls and the basics.
“I said, ‘Well, you've come to the right place mate because that's where we're going to put our attention for the whole group’.
“He just bought into all of that.”
McRae believes the biggest aspect behind Sidebottom returning to his best was putting him in a position that would complement his strengths.
With his running capacity long vaunted at Collingwood, one of McRae’s first moves was placing Sidebottom on a wing with Josh Daicos occupying the other.
“I think prior to me - I shouldn't make too many comments about it – but I think he might have played a few different roles,” McRae said.
“But I knew Steele had this unbelievable running capability, he is our best runner - we've got Nick Daicos who has slightly gone past him now - but he's an incredible match-day runner.
“I remember this, I thought, ‘Steele let's get back to work, we’ll play you on the wing train you as a wingman and get to work on that and your fundamentals’.
“Then all of a sudden, the growth within the group and him have come along for the ride and it looks like he's at the top of his game.”
Though 10 games in 2023, Sidebottom is averaging 22.6 disposals, 4.4 marks, 3.6 tackles and 3.4 clearances – all improvements on his 2022 numbers.
He’ll share his milestone day with Mason Cox with the American playing his 100th AFL game on Sunday against the Roos.