One of the more interesting aspects about Todd Goldstein’s 150th game on Saturday night will be which players carry the 201-centimetre North Melbourne ruckman off Etihad Stadium after the final siren.
Goldstein was not overly keen on the idea of being chaired off, but joked that it wouldn’t be 177cm veteran Brent Harvey doing the heavy lifting. “Yeah, it definitely won’t be by Boomer, that’s for sure, he’d struggle to carry me,’’ Goldstein chuckled.
The 27-year-old becomes the eighth member of the current Kangaroos squad to rack up 150 games in the blue and white stripes, but said Harvey’s longevity had put his milestone in the shade.
“Boomer’s sort of ruined it for all of us – he’s played his 300th, 350th and 400th and I think he’ll play his record-breaking (427th) game three quarters of the way through the year, so I’ll be happy about it and he’ll say ‘you’ve still got 250 games to catch up to me’,’’ Goldstein said.
“So it pales in comparison to him but it’s still a nice milestone for myself and something that when the career ends and you look at how many you’ve played it will be something that I’ll look back on fondly.’’
The former Trinity Grammar student said “maybe a few more family and friends might be there but other than that it’s just a normal game’’.
His greater focus will be playing in a winning Round 1 match for the first time in his eight-season career. The Roos have never won a season opener under the coaching of Brad Scott.
“Can’t change that now, we’re focused on Adelaide, it doesn’t really matter what round it is we need to get the win,’’ Goldstein said.
And should that happen, it might be that Boomer makes himself scarce and it falls to guys like Drew Petrie and Ben Brown to sidle up to Goldstein as the Roos leave the field.