Playing 250 AFL matches is no mean feat.

In fact, when iconic West Coast Eagles spearhead Josh Kennedy takes the field against Fremantle on Sunday afternoon, he will become just the 256^th player in VFL/AFL history to reach that milestone.

And when the opening siren echoes through Optus Stadium to mark the beginning of RAC Derby 51, Kennedy will go down as the 16^th Eagle to have played 250 fixtures at the game’s highest level.

Interestingly, that is one game for every player who has represented West Coast since its inception after fellow forward Jamaine Jones became the 250^th athlete to don blue and gold when he debuted against Sydney in round five.

Anyone who manages to register 250 AFL appearances is a warrior, but it is safe to assume most have not received the same attention as West Coast’s all-time leading goal-kicker.

To say Kennedy has been marked man throughout his career would be an understatement.

On a weekly basis he is beat up, rag-dolled and thrown from pillar to post, often by two or three defenders at a time.

Yet he still finds a way to win the footy and inflict damage on the scoreboard.

It has always been the way since he arrived at the Eagles as part of the famous trade that saw 2006 premiership captain Chris Judd land at Carlton in exchange for Kennedy and pick No.3 in the 2007 AFL Draft, which West Coast’s recruitment team used to secure 215-game winger and 2018 premiership-winner Chris Masten.

Kennedy wasn’t always the intimidating juggernaut who wreaked havoc on opposition defences.

When he first arrived at the Eagles, the boy from the small north-west town of Northampton did not possesses the imposing frame he sports today.

And he was not a walk-up start in the senior team.

However, he was, as he is today, one of the team’s hardest working and most diligent trainers.

Eventually, he gave the match committee no choice but to pick him and he made his debut in blue and gold in round six, 2008.

It was a tough induction, a 60-point loss to eventual preliminary finalists the Western Bulldogs, but things would get better.

Kennedy became a mainstay of West Coast’s starting 22 in 2009 and two years later he broke close mate Mark LeCras’ stranglehold on the leading goalkicker crown to claim his first club title with 59 majors for the year.

While an ankle injury derailed his 2012 campaign, Kennedy returned with a vengeance in 2013 and reminded Eagles fans, and the wider AFL public, of his prodigious talent.

He won five-straight leading goalkicker titles from 2013-2017, claimed consecutive Coleman medals in that stretch – the first in 2015 following a 75-goal home and away campaign and the second in 2016 after an 80-goal regular season effort – and slipped on three all-Australian blazers in consecutive years from 2015-17.

As if that wasn’t enough, Kennedy was twice named vice-captain of the representative side in 2015 and 2017.

But for all the awards he received during that time in which he was undoubtedly the best key forward in the game, he was still without the one he most desired – a premiership medal

That all changed in 2018.

And like most premierships it didn’t come easy, especially for Kennedy, who missed five games leading into the finals series due to a leg injury.

But the talismanic spearhead proved that patience is a virtue and in spite of a slow start in his comeback game, the qualifying final against Collingwood at Optus Stadium, he came home with a wet sail, kicking two crucial goals to kickstart an Eagles comeback that would eventually see them edge the Magpies by 16 points in front of a raucous, 59,585-strong crowd.

It was a similar story in the grand final, against the same opponent.

After narrowly missing his first set shot of the game – and then watching Collingwood run riot and kick five unanswered goals – Kennedy provided the settler, a timely goal on the stroke of quarter time to get the Eagles within 17 points of the Pies.

He chimed in with his second major just a minute into the second term and got with Eagles within five points of the Pies late in the final term with an imperious set shot snap from the far boundary.

Every time the Eagles were in need, Kennedy delivered, as he has on countless occasions throughout his career.

And when the final siren sounded, following one of the most extraordinary passages of play that delivered the club its fourth premiership title, it was evident for all to see how much the victory meant to him.

Kennedy's embrace with LeCras will long be etched in the memory of West Coast fans.

It will be a momentous occasion when he takes to the field in his 250^th match tomorrow, made all the special by being an RAC Derby.

The two-time Glendinning-Allan medallist has booted 43 goals from his 17 RAC Derby outings and his best haul against the Dockers came in round 20, 2016 when he booted seven goals against the club’s purple foe.

In his 200^th AFL game, Kennedy booted six goals against Collingwood in round 18, 2017.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see him another bag in game 250?

The JK File

Games: 249 (22 Carlton, 227 West Coast)
Goals: 618 (11 Carlton, 607 West Coast)
Behinds: 345 (9 Carlton, 336 West Coast)

West Coast Eagles accolades:

2018 premiership player
Vice-Captain: 2014-present
All-time leading goal-kicker: 607 goals
Six-time leading goal-kicker: 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Club Champion Runner-up: 2016
Best Clubman: 2015
Life Member: 2016

AFL accolades:

Coleman medallist: 2015, 2016
All Australian: 2015, 2016, 2017
All Australian vice-captain: 2015, 2017

RAC Derby record:

Games: 17
Goals: 43
Average goals: 2.53
Glendinning-Allan medallist: 2016 (Round 20), 2017 (Round 6)