IN THE lead up to his 150^th AFL match against Geelong at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, Colin Sylvia says he questioned whether he would ever reach it.

Along with vice-captain Nathan Jones, who will also play his 150^th game this round, Sylvia said there were moments when he didn’t believe his milestone game would eventuate.  

“I feel very fortunate to actually get there. There’s probably times where I doubted that I probably would,” he said from AAMI Park on Wednesday.

“I hung on and things went right at the right time to get the body right. I had a lot of injuries early days and I just thought footy wasn’t for me. I started to look at what else I could do outside of footy, but it all turned around.

“I feel very fortunate and lucky to be where I am today and playing 150 games for this great club.”

Sylvia said he couldn’t wait for the opportunity to take on the brilliant Geelong at the Cattery in his key match, despite being part of the second worst loss in AFL history against the Cats at the same venue two years ago. For the record, the Demons have won just five times from 35 clashes against the Cats at Kardinia Park since 1967.

“That was quite a painful day [in round 19, 2011], but I’m not thinking of that and I’m just looking forward to another opportunity … against a quality opposition,” Sylvia said.

“It’s really exciting. I think it’s going to be a really good experience for all of our younger players, as was [last] weekend against a really quality opposition [in the Sydney Swans].

“Geelong also is probably the most in form team in the competition at the moment on their home turf, so it’s a big challenge. It’s just another opportunity to play against a great club.”

Reflecting on the recent change of senior coach, Sylvia said it had been “very different” since Neil Craig took over from Mark Neeld.  

“We’re definitely really positive about it at the moment,” he said.

“I think there has been some improvement.”

But Sylvia said Neeld had “done some really good things at the Melbourne Football Club”.

“He really drove high expectations and he was really hard on certain players and in the end, it didn’t work out for him, but he’ll leave some really positive things behind,” he said.

“[With] all the pressure and speculation [Neeld was under], the club had to make that decision and that’s the pathway they decided to go down.

“I’m really enjoying my time at the moment under Neil [Craig].”