The 12 seasons of Ryan Houlihan’s football life have taken in the darkest days of his club’s long and illustrious existence. Clearly, it’s been one hell of a journey for the kid from just outside Corowa-Rutherglen, who now readies for his 200th senior appearance in the dark Navy Blue.

“It’s been an absolute rollercoaster, the first 12 years,” Houlihan admitted this week.

“When I first got here as an 18 year-old we absolutely dominated and we were smashing teams, but by the time my second year rolled around I was playing every game. Football seemed so easy and I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

“By the time I got to my third year we went from just missing out on a Grand Final to wooden spoons and these were really tough times. There were moments driving to games when I was thinking ‘How much are we going to get smashed by this week?’. It makes you enjoy these times even more, because you’ve been through the tough times, and now it’s a real pleasure to drive in.”

As Carlton’s fifth round selection (No.73 overall) in the 1999 National AFL draft, Houlihan was a bargain basement pick-up.

“We really liked him,” the club’s then recruiting manager Shane O’Sullivan said this week, “but on the way through [to the draft] he hit a bit of a poor patch and other clubs dropped off him.

“Some people probably saw him as not hard enough, but one of our scouts Paul ‘Stuka’ Brodie was a massive fan, and while he didn’t have to twist my arm, he was really pushing for Ryan.

“We always thought that with his skill level and the way he went about it he was always pretty good, so we took the punt, thought we might have been able to get him a bit later and that’s how it worked out . . . and he pretty much played straight away.”

O’Sullivan qualified his assessment of Houlihan when he added “while it sounds pretty self-indulgent, I’m pretty proud of him”.

“He’s been really loyal, dedicated, and he’s always wanted to be a Carlton player. He’s a bit different, and he’d be the first to admit that, but ask him to do anything and he’ll do it,” O’Sullivan said.

“Of all the great players we’ve had here, he’d be up with the elite in terms of kicking the ball. When he gets it all the boys want to get on their bike, because there’s a fair chance they’ll get it. We all can’t be players like ‘Mitchy’ Robinson, but Mitch would probably like to kick the ball like Ryan.”

And yet, Houlihan never considered the art of kicking easy. His mastery of that particular facet of the game was developed night after night, week after week, month after month and year after year at a place called Wahgunyah, on a paddock-come-footy ground sandwiched between his parent’s home and that of his grandmother’s.

“Kicking didn’t come natural. I guess my cause was helped when was young because I never put a footy down,” he said.

“Living in the country meant that there wasn’t much else to do, and it helped having three brothers to have a kick with. I used to kick the footy all day at school, then have a kick in the paddock near home until ten o’clock at night until Mum dragged me in.

“All the boys my age would find their way down to the paddock and we’d play games of seven on seven or ten on ten - whatever the numbers were. I’d also have a kick there by myself. I used to kick the ball into the trees with either foot, then try and crumb it off the trees.”

Houlihan, whose brothers Damian and Adam also plied their crafts at senior League level, cites the pair as real influences on his football. Fittingly, they’ll be there on Friday night, together with younger brother Josh and of course, Mum and Dad.

“Both my brothers went through the system, and that made a real impression,” said Ryan of the legacy left by Damian and Adam. “I remember as an 11 year-old running through the change rooms when Damian was at Victoria Park, then watching on as a 15 year-old when Adam went to Geelong. They gave me some feedback on what to do and what not to do because they obviously didn’t do everything right, but it made me appreciate how hard League footy actually is.”

Houlihan was a lightly-framed kid of 18 years and 119 days old when he first turned out for the seniors against North, in the 11th round of 2000.

How well Houlihan remembers his first game.

“It doesn’t seem that long ago,” he said. “I can recall that ‘Kouta’ [Anthony Koutoufides] was on fire and my first opponent was Byron Pickett. In the first 30 seconds I got Byron caught with the ball, first blood to me . . . but there weren’t any recriminations, he went easy on me that day.”

On Friday night, at 29 years and 188 days of age, Houlihan’s career comes full circle when he again fronts up against the Kangaroos. He’s got there the hard way, having late last year undergone surgery to have a cyst behind his left knee removed, only to succumb to three successive injuries to the calf muscle on the same leg.

Carlton record keeper Stephen Williamson advises that Houlihan becomes the 11th youngest Carlton player to play his 200th game; and the seventh to complete his senior debut and 200th game against the same team. And it’s taken him 11 years and 69 days at a cost of 57 matches missed to get there.

Over the journey, Houlihan has followed out the edicts issued by Carlton coaches David Parkin, Wayne Brittain, Denis Pagan and Brett Ratten, and followed out the captains Craig Bradley, Ratten, Andrew McKay, Anthony Koutoufides, Lance Whitnall and Chris Judd.

Houlihan’s crack at game No.200 was assured by way of a simple phone call from his old teammate “Ratts” on Wednesday night. In chesting the banner at Etihad Stadium on Friday, he earns an unwelcome status as Carlton’s first 200-gamer not to have represented his team in a Grand Final - and there are 30 members of that coveted 200 club to have gone before him.

But the journey ain’t over for Houlihan. Not by a long shot.

As he said: “Hopefully that changes at the end of this year and I can become the 31st player”.