Every day the stroll to my work station at Mineral Resources Park is a walk down memory lane; West Coast Eagles superstars adorning the walls in glorious depictions virtually every step of the walk from door to desk.

But like everything else, through familiarity it becomes routine. Unremarkable. No more spectacular than walking past advertising billboards at Perth train station.

Usually, it commands no more than a cursory glance at those graphics featuring past greats of the West Coast Eagles who have graced the AFL and achieved the pinnacle, both as a collective and individually.

Premiership players, Club Champions, multiple All-Australians, AFL and West Coast Eagles Hall of famers.

In the week after Shannon Hurn became the first Eagle to play 300 games, it seemed appropriate to take a momentary pause. Something in the subconscious insisted that the brakes be applied. A refresher taken.

Instead of breezing past images of Dean Cox, Peter Matera, Guy McKenna, Glen Jakovich and other 250 game players emblazened on the walls, it was poignant to stop and observe this brilliant pictorial history.

To consider the luminaries our club has been blessed to see don the blue and gold over 35 celebrated years. Geez, it’s a literal galaxy of stars.

That Hurn is the only one of those players who has gone on to play 300 games is almost inconceivable.

Often, when analysts assess the reasons behind the dearth of 300-game players at the Eagles, they throw in the travel factor. And one of the stats rolled out on the eve of Hurn’s milestone game was the estimated travel he had completed in his stellar career.

More than 780,00km is the guesstimate. Good frequent flyer points in those trips, but otherwise irrelevant in the argument about career longevity.

While it has taken 35 years for the first Eagle to play 300 games, Fremantle has had two players achieve 300 games (with both David Mundy and Matthew Pavlich getting past 350) in 26 years in the competition.

Remarkably, since the Eagles entered the competition it clearly has the most 200 game players of any club. The table below refers to the list of double centurions to have played at one club since the Eagles started in the competition in 1987.

For instance, players like Chris Judd and Lewis Jetta, who played for two clubs, are not included in those numbers.

The Eagles have had 27 players reach the 200-game mark in that period. Geelong is next best at 24.

The first to achieve the distinction was McKenna against Geelong in round nine, 1997 and the 27^th player to join that elite list was Nic Naitanui in the match against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval three weeks ago.

In the same period, Richmond, Essendon and Melbourne have had only 13 players hit the double ton mark, making a fallacy of the ‘travel factor’ in assessing career longevity.

The more relevant fact is loyalty and the desire to be a part of a successful organisation.

While there was a heavy emphasis on home-grown talent, particularly in the early years when the inaugural squad was wholly Western Australian talent, five of the 27 players are “interstate” recruits.

The only non-Western Australian to play in either the 1992 or 1994 premiership was young South Australian Shane Bond in 1994. He later returned to his home State to play with Port Adelaide.

South Australian Hurn, premiership captain in 2018 tops the games played list, while current skipper Luke Shuey, the highly durable Andrew Gaff, and 2006 premiership stars Michael Braun and David Wirrpanda also feature.

In the 34 completed seasons, the Eagles have played finals in 25 of them and won four premierships. Hopefully, they can win enough games in the next three weeks to take that to 26 finals series in 35 seasons.

And who knows after that?