Josh jokes on CTV...

Goal in 2001...

Specky and goal in 2002...

There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are

There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive

So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

It's a long road
And you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold

You can find love
If you search within yourself
And the emptiness you felt
Will disappear

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive

So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

Oh ho, Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don't let anyone
Tear them away, hey yea

Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time, you find the way, hey

Then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive

So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

That a hero lies in you
Mmm, that a hero lies in you

AS fate would have it, Josh Fraser's senior football career at Collingwood may finish with a neat, if cruel, symmetry. Precisely 200 games, spanning a decade.

There is every chance Fraser will play his last match in black and white.

If so, a journey that started against Hawthorn in the first round of 2000 at the MCG, is more than likely to end with precisely the same team and place in this season's last home-and-away match.

Fraser, 28, has been a wonderful servant for the Magpies, but he has spent the past nine rounds languishing in the VFL as the senior team surged to the top of the ladder and to premiership favouritism on the back of an unbroken winning streak.

His return today is a well-deserved chance to become the 29th Collingwood player to play 200 games and across the 114-year history of the competition he joins the elite group that is the 3.7 per cent of all league footballers to have reached the milestone.

Fraser is there thanks to Leigh Brown being suspended for one match and, unless Brown or No. 1 ruckman Darren Jolly are injured, Fraser will again be out of the club's best 22 and in limbo through the finals.

Fraser is out of contract at the end of the season and probably out of time at Collingwood.

So it is that the talented 202cm No. 1 priority pick from the 1999 National Draft - the first building block of that year's wooden-spoon Magpies, chosen under incoming coach Mick Malthouse - is likely to figure in post-season trades and be sent to a new AFL home.

Nevertheless, Craig Kelly, a member of the Magpies' 1990 premiership team and boss of Elite Sports Properties, which manages Fraser, warned fortunes could change very quickly, Fraser's included.

"If he plays well enough and he's in the mix, he'll keep playing. If you play good footy and you perform, who knows what happens," Kelly said. "All Josh needs to worry about is performing, playing good footy and the rest will take care of itself."

Tony Shaw, Collingwood coach in Fraser's draft year, says the time is right for the big man to fly the coop and secure a permanent senior berth with another AFL club next season.

"Look, he's been in good form in the reserves and he's a very good back-up, but I think he has to look elsewhere. He's a pretty competitive bloke, Josh, and I don't see it happening for him there," Shaw said.

"I wouldn't think he's in their long-term plans."

Shaw said a new club such as Gold Coast would be ideal for a player of Fraser's ability and experience.

"For two years, I think Gold Coast would be almost a perfect fit. They are looking for senior bodies - they've got enough young blokes. He's a very good player - it's up to Josh; he may not want to go up there, or anywhere."

Former Magpies ruckman and dual Brownlow medallist Peter Moore sees a long-term future for Fraser in a different role - and in different colours.

"I don't know what he's going to do or what the club is going to do, but they need to sit down at the end of the year and have a chat," Moore, a mentor of Fraser's early in his career, said yesterday.

"If he gets in there and has a good game, well then it's a nice dilemma for Collingwood. But clearly Jolly's been playing well and Chris Dawes and Leigh Brown have both been playing really good footy.

"So it's a situation that they just couldn't put him in even if they wanted to.

"It appears at the moment that in the long term there probably isn't a place for him. I think he should play much more of a forward role - there are a number of teams who need that sort of player against the right opponents. When he started at Collingwood he was very effective playing at half-forward.

"If they could find a role for him up forward I think he would be very effective. He's a very difficult match-up in the forward line. Carlton, for example, or the Gold Coast - anyone who needs a big key forward - would find Josh an attractive proposition. He's got three more years in him in that forward role.

"The trouble is Collingwood has got all those big, strong young fellows, so you can't blame them for going in that direction. I'm certain he has significant value elsewhere."

It has been a rapid change in fortunes for Fraser.

Only last season he was one of the club's vice captains. He has worn the Big V, played in consecutive Grand Finals in 2002-03 and whenever his expiry date is at Collingwood, he will depart a life member.

As Kelly said, the future will take care of itself. Now, one of footy's biggest stages awaits.

WHO would have thought? Josh Fraser needed Leigh Brown to be suspended this week to be sure of playing his 200th game this afternoon.

Fraser was entrenched as Collingwood's No.1 ruckman when Brown joined the Magpies via the 2008 national draft (selection No.73) as a stand-by, a back-up defender/forward/ruckman.

The recruitment this year of Darren Jolly coupled with Brown's revival was a double-whammy for Fraser, who has managed just eight games for the season and been stuck on 199 for more than two months.

I'm pleased for Josh. It may be only a number, but he deserves to get to 200. He has been a good servant, he is good man.

Ironically, Brown, now at his third club, has beaten him to 200, having started at the same time (2000) from the same draft. Both were top five selections.

Fraser was the lanky youngster who coach Mick Malthouse declared would be introduced ever so slowly into the senior team and then promptly played him in 21 of a possible 22 games in 2000.

He did exactly the same thing the following year. Despite an obvious lack of bulk and strength, Fraser was a ruckman because Collingwood didn't have one.

Actually, he was a half-forward flanker with a ruckman's height.

As it transpired, he became an automatic selection throughout the decade, despite being a player who was neither a great ruckman nor a dominant forward (156 goals).

His most memorable contribution forward was three goals in the 2002 Grand Final, when the Magpies lost to the Brisbane Lions by just nine points.

In lots of ways, his career has mirrored that of St Kilda's Justin Koschitzke.

Neither of them has evolved into what most of us expected after such a promising start from early draft picks - Fraser (No.1 in 1999), Koschitzke (No.2 in 2000).

That is no one's fault, simply fact.

When I interviewed Fraser in April, he said: "I'm proud of my career.

"To survive 10 years in the AFL is a fair effort, I reckon. I don't have the individual accolades that a lot of other players have, but I've been part of a great club for 10 years and played finals (11 including two Grand Finals)."

The outstanding junior off the Mansfield farm freely admits he can be seen as laid-back, laconic. He might be better off with a harder edge, but the harder edge isn't there. They don't sell them at Bunnings, either.

Josh Fraser is what he is, a competent, durable player who deserves his spot in the AFL's 200 Club.

I suspect his days are numbered at Collingwood. Not because of age - he turns 29 in January - more a combination of his form over the past two or three seasons and a knee damaged in the Hall of Fame tribute game in 2008.

Unless things go awry in September, Collingwood is going to continue with Jolly as the ruckman playing 70-80 per cent of game time, with Brown or one of the other talls filling in on a needs basis.

Fraser has two hours this afternoon to alter that mindset.

Fraser hopes to keep his premiership dream alive with a strong return in his milestone match against Hawthorn at the MCG.

Stranded on 199 games since Round 12, Fraser gets his chance to press for a finals berth with the Magpies after spending the past nine matches in the VFL.

While Fraser, 28, was reticent to discuss his future beyond this season, he said he hoped to play a part for the Magpies next month.

Will Josh Fraser be playing with Collingwood next season?  Have your say.  Add your comment below.

He has come into the team for Leigh Brown, who is suspended.

Despite constant speculation about when Fraser would play his 200th senior game, the milestone had not been his focus, he said yesterday.

"For me it was not about my 200th (game), it was about performing well enough and giving myself a chance to get back in the side," Fraser said.

"I never really thought about whether I would make my 200th this year, I'm really thankful for the opportunity to get back in the team.

"On the verge of finals, hopefully I can perform well and play some finals.

"I'm in the best 22 for this week. I'm not looking to kick five or six goals, but I'm looking to play the role that's asked of me."

Out of contract at the end of the season, Fraser said he would leave talks about his future to his manager.

The former No.1 draft pick said his sole aim was playing in the finals - and winning a flag.

"I want to get through the next month of footy and hopefully play in a premiership," he said.

Fraser said he had always remained hopeful of earning a recall to the senior team.

"Things open up ... different guys have come in and out, so I was confident and hopeful an opportunity would present itself," he said.

 "I wanted to be in the best form I could be when that came."

Coming off a five-goal performance in the VFL last week, Fraser said he felt the ruck was still his best position.

"I think my best footy is in the ruck, but I've been able to go forward at different stages in my career," he said.

"I probably haven't done it a lot, but obviously Darren (Jolly) is filling the ruck needs at the moment. I will ruck at some stage and go forward and hopefully I can perform in both those areas."

Fraser also warned against writing off some of his teammates still fighting to get back into the 22.

"All of sudden you're playing VFL and (people think) your career's at the crossroads, but people severely underestimate the character of the players in that locker room.," he said.

"Shane O'Bree, in and out of the side, goes back and performs as a leader each week in the VFL ... Tarkyn Lockyer, Paul Medhurst is the same, Leon Davis last week, so (they're) very proud blokes and it's a real slap in the face at times that they're spoken of with such disregard, I reckon."

The popular Collingwood ruckman, who has been stranded on 199 games since Round 12, is a near-certainty to play his 200th against Hawthorn on Saturday.

Fraser, who was said to have a virus, trained yesterday and is the ideal replacement for suspended forward/ruckman Leigh Brown.

Magpies football manager Geoff Walsh last night was tight-lipped on selection matters.

"He trained today, he is available for selection," Walsh said.

"He's fine, he's ready to go, and wherever he's selected to play on the weekend I guarantee he will play."

Fraser kicked five goals for Collingwood's VFL team on Saturday.

If selected, he will be asked to play second ruck behind Darren Jolly, as well as a forward role beside Travis Cloke and Chris Dawes.

Fraser's manager Dan Richardson, of Elite Sports Properties, said Fraser was buoyant about his immediate and long-term future.

"There are no thoughts of retiring," Richardson said last night.

The 28-year-old is out of contract and, given his lack of opportunities this season, is likely to be searching for a new home at the end of the season.

There is a strong confidence that Fraser has at least two years to offer another club, particularly given the scarcity of experienced ruck talent.

Richardson said Fraser's reputation for being injury-prone was often over-blown.

"Josh hasn't missed a game this year," Richardson said.

"Perhaps his injuries have just come at the wrong time, which gives the wrong impression."

Fraser has maintained his spirits all year in the knowledge an opportunity in the finals can crop up at any time.



COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse says he would "love" to see ruckman Josh Fraser get to 200 games.

Fraser has been stranded on 199 games since Round 12 and has been unable to break back into the Magpies' winning line-up despite good form in the VFL.

Malthouse said the issue was weighing on his mind because he wanted to get Fraser to the milestone, but couldn't do it at the expense of the team.

"I'm still very very keen to give Josh his 200th," he said on SEN radio this morning.

Malthouse said he regretted letting Murray Rance finish his career on 97 games while coach of West Coast, and still questioned his decision not to play Mitchell White in the 1994 Grand Final, which the Eagles won.

"Murray Rance ... I'm kicking myself that I couldn't get (those) extra (games) for him, because I would have loved to have done that.

"Mitchell White missed out in one of the Grand Finals, he really should have played in it ... that's more emotional, and you've got to be very careful about that, because you've got to keep your professionalism up as best you possibly can and let the emotions maybe filter through later.

"I've been part of the football club for 11 years and so has Josh ... you'd love to be able to see him get that 200 games, but we're not going to compromise the side.

"I'm not saying that when Josh comes in that he's going to comprimise the side, it's just that (Darren) Jolly's playing very well, (Leigh) Brown's playing very well, (Travis) Cloke and (Chris) Dawes are playing very well, so it's very difficult.

"But there's still two games and we will weigh all those factors up."

Malthouse said the Magpies leadership group would have no input in the decision.

"I won't listen to leadership group - I don't want players to ever think they're part of the selection panel," he said.

"I reckon players are the worst selectors in the history of the world because they let their emotions dictate."

He said he would face a number of tough selection decisions coming into the finals - starting this weekend when several players injured last weekend were likely to return.

"It plays on your mind, there's no question.

"The needs of many far outweigh the needs of one, and that's what you've got to keep reminding yourself.

"It's about the 22, not who's out, and those that are out have got to support those that are in there."

Malthouse said the club was doing its best to keep the build-up to the finals as low-key as possible despite sitting six points clear on top of the ladder.

But he conceded the Magpies were perfectly placed for a tilt at the premiership.

"I suspect it is the best I've seen this club in 11 years.

"I vividly remember saying to the playing group pre-season if we make top four with this draw, we've got every right to think we've got a chance - and we've made top four."