Arriving at Simonds Stadium in 2006 as the son of a 182-gamer, Tom Hawkins will go 18 better than his father Jack on Friday night.

Then a father-son selection at pick 41, Hawkins now reaches 200 games as a two-time premiership player, one-time All-Australian, five-time leading goal kicker for the Cats and 2012 Carji Greeves medallist.

“I vividly remember walking into the change rooms [in 2006] and walking around and seeing players that had played 100 games on and around my locker in blue writing,” Hawkins told media on Tuesday morning.

“Then those players that had played over 200 were in silver writing and those that played 300 were in gold.”

“Above my locker was the 200-plus game board, and for some reason that stuck in my mind a bit.”

“It’s one thing I’ve actually sat back and thought it’s a pretty good achievement in my 10-11 years of footy.”

“I’m pretty proud to be playing 200 this week.”

A highly credentialed underage player, Hawkins starred for his hometown of Finley, New South Wales, before moving south to represent Melbourne Grammar, Sandringham Dragons and Vic Metro.

But despite his obvious physical size and presence as an 18-year-old, the formative years of Hawkins’ AFL career were certainly not without their challenges.

Heavily scrutinised under an intense and often unfair media spotlight, it was not until the backend of 2011 did Hawkins come into his own, and no more so than on the biggest stage of them all.

Having edged out mentor Cam Mooney as the Cats’ number one forward through the finals series, Hawkins’ 19 disposals, nine marks and 3 goals against Collingwood on grand final day proved a match-winning performance, as the football world witnessed a boy grow into a man right before its eyes.

“It’s just a journey, and that’s sort of where I see my journey to 200, and every other kid that walks through – whether they play 20, 50 or 100, or are lucky enough to play 200 – there’s been challenges along the way that we’ve had to overcome,” Hawkins said.

“And I say “we”, because it’s not just me that should be celebrating the 200 milestone. It’s the football club, it’s my friends, it’s my family, it’s my coaches at Finley footy club in under-14s where I first started.”

“It’s been a huge journey. There’s certainly been some challenges, but I can’t say that either the 0-100 period or 100-200 has been any harder than the whole journey itself.”

Tom Hawkins becomes the 37^th player to reach 200 games for the Cats, and sits sixth on the club’s all-time goal kicking list.