As Tom McCartin looks forward to his 150^th AFL game against Brisbane at the Gabba on Saturday afternoon, there is a big group of teammates who will feel indebted.

In McCartin’s eight years at the Swans, 10 players have posted their 150^th game for the club –Dane Rampe (2019), Jake Lloyd and Sam Reid (2020), Harry Cunningham (2021), Lance Franklin and Isaac Heeney (2022), Tom Papley and Callum Mills (2023), Ollie Florent and Will Hayward (2024).

He played in all but one, missing Papley’s 150^th against Fremantle at the SCG (which was a loss) due to concussion, and he’s helped eight of the other nine celebrate with a win, with a loss in Lloyd’s Covid 150^th against Port Adelaide in Adelaide.

Subject to final selection, eight of the 10 will run out beside McCartin at the Gabba on Saturday, with only the retired Franklin and Reid missing from the “party”.

In a team and a club where mateship and unity is everything, the McCartin milestone is a big motivation at a time when the Swans are playing for pride against an opponent which beat them badly in the 2024 grand final.

Having started 4-8 in the win/loss column this year they’ve gone 6-2 in the last two months and, although the finals are out of reach, two wins in their last three games would at least see the Swans finish with a positive record.

And they can still play a key role in shaping the top eight, with Saturday’s game against third-placed Brisbane leading into a Round 23 clash with fourth-placed Geelong in what will be CEO Tom Harley’s last home game, and the unofficial ‘Dean Cox Cup’ against West Coast in Round 24, when the first-year Swans coach takes on his former club in Perth for the first time.

McCartin, pick #33 in the 2017 draft, will be the eighth of 106 first-time draftees from that year to play 150 games after Melbourne pick #31 Bailey Fritsch (168), Fremantle pick #2 Andrew Brayshaw (165), Western Bulldogs #9 Aaron Naughton (163), Geelong #24 now West Coaster Tim Kelly (161), Brisbane pick #1 Cam Rayner (159) and #15 Zac Bailey (158) and Collingwood rookie #22 Brody Mihocek (153).

In his eighth AFL season, McCartin has missed 22 games on his way to becoming the 75^th Swan to 150 games.

McCartin is one of only two players taken by the Swans at #33 in the 44-year history of the National Draft. The other was Prahran Dragons ruckman Will Sangster, who was pick #33 in 1996 and played two games in 1999.

But McCartin will run out with another pick #33 in red and white – James Jordan went to Melbourne at #33 in 2018.

Pick #33 in the National Draft has a hit-and-miss history – more miss than hit. Seven of the first 10 didn’t play a game, and only five have topped 200 games.

The games record-holder for pick #33’s is 264-gamer Brad Hill, now at St Kilda after three premierships at Hawthorn and a stint at Fremantle.

He’s just gone past Brisbane 2001 Norm Smith Medallist and 273-game three-time flag winner Shaun Hart, who was drafted in 1989 and was the first #33 to play even one game.

Jeremy Howe, a 268-game Melbourne/Collingwood defender, was pick #33 in 2010, while Brisbane captain Jed Adcock (213 games) and St Kilda’s Sam Gilbert (208) were also drafted at #33.

The other #33 who has been in the news recently is 185-game Richmond, Port Adelaide and Melbourne small man David Rodan, who is now among the AFL’s premier goal umpires. He was drafted in 2001.

Among those still playing after joining the League via #33 are Port’s Willem Drew, Geelong’s Shannon Neale and St Kilda’s Mitch Owens.

McCartin, whose parents Matt and Jo have been long-time owners of the Barwon Club Hotel, five minutes from Geelong’s Kardinia Park headquarters, was born on the penultimate day of the 20^th century – 30 December 1999.

But, in one of those ‘what if … ?‘ sliding doors moments, if he was born about 30 hours later, he would have been a 1 January baby in the 21^st century. And he would have pushed into the 2018 Draft and an entirely different journey.

That McCartin just snuck into the 2017 draft also prompted a big life decision. He’d just finished Year 11 at St Joseph’s College in Geelong at the time and had to decide whether to do Year 12.

As he said at the time: “I had a chat to Mum and Dad, and the club, but in the end it was my decision … I decided not to. I’m more into the trade industry so I’ll probably head down that path. (And) I’m doing a Cert 4, which all the first-years do.”

Set to play his 150^th at 25 years 222 days, McCartin will be the seventh-youngest Swans 150-gamer all-time, older only than Luke Parker (24/319), Tony Morwood (25/50), Michael O’Loughlin (25/59), Dan Hannebery (25/67), Mark Bayes (25/132) and Adam Goodes (25/182).

So his focus these days is more about the next 150 games than post-life football.

And, more immediately it’s about his likely 150^th-game match-up with Brisbane youngster Logan Morris, who last weekend became the youngest player to kick six goals in a game at the MCG since Buddy Franklin in 2006.

This follows an experimental early season stint up forward which, for those who followed his junior career, was quite the blind experiment it was made out to be.

After all, his first player profile in the 2018 AFL Guide described McCartin as “an exciting key forward prospect – strong-marking, tall, with an excellent vertical lap and good endurance.”

He kicked 28 goals playing predominantly forward in his first 43 games before going goalless in his next 89 games over four years.

The move forward, which delivered one goal in each of the first two games of the year, leaves him with a 150-game total of 30. And bragging rights over Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who had 28 goals at 150 games, Ben Mathews (29) and Tadhg Kennelly (29).

McCartin inherited the #30 from Roberts-Thomson, and prior to his AFL debut was presented with his jumper by LRT, who wore it throughout his 179-game career.

They now sit second and third in games for the club in #30 behind Mark Bayes, who played 246 times in #30 to rank fourth in AFL history behind Richmond’s Francis Bourke (300), Geelong’s Matthew Scarlett (283) and West Coast’s Peter Matera (248).