COACH Paul Roos has praised the effort of vice-captain and key defender Lynden Dunn to reach 150 matches this round.

Dunn, who made his AFL debut in 2006, will achieve his milestone against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Roos said the versatile tall had been a fine player since he arrived at the club.

“It’s a good effort. In my short time here, he’s been terrific,” he said.

“He’s got a lot of respect amongst his peers and he’s played some terrific footy in the last 18 months, in particular.

“So for him to get to 150 is a great effort. 

Meanwhile, Roos praised the courage of another long-serving defender Colin Garland, who played with a broken hand during last Monday’s loss to Collingwood at the MCG.

“It was a good effort by Col. We knew probably halfway through the game that he had done something to his hand, so for him to get through the whole game was a terrific effort,” he said.

“It was really important because we had already lost [Aaron] vandenBerg, who was on the bench for a while and got ruled out [with a hamstring injury]. [Ben] Newton was on the bench for a while, so it really impacts your rotations.

“I thought Col played really well, but if they’re just out on the ground then it makes it a lot easier on the other guys and takes the pressure off the rotations. So for him to be able to do that was really important.”