From www.localfooty.com.au
Reported by Luke D'Anello
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WERRIBEE skipper Robbie Castello is poised to reach a milestone this Sunday.
Barring injury, the 26-year-old will play his 138th match and become the VFL club's games record holder against Frankston at Frankston Oval.
Castello will overtake former teammate, Dom Gleeson, who crossed to Geelong during the off-season after eight years at Avalon Airport Oval.
Travis Robertson (135 games), Andrew Button (130), David Lyons and Stephen Douglas (both 127) are the other players who feature prominently on the Tigers' games record list.
Castello, who joined the club in 2004, assumed the captaincy this year following Gleeson's departure.
The small forward collected Werribee's best-and-fairest in 2006 and was named in the VFL team of the year last season.
Castello spent his junior career at Keilor Park before playing one-year with TAC Cup powerhouse Calder Cannons.
"It's a good honour. I set myself a goal that I wanted to be a loyal club person and stay at the one club for a long time," Castello said.
"I didn't realise it was so quick. I thought I had a few more weeks left."
"You just play as many games as you can at the highest level you can and for me, at the moment, that's at Werribee."
"To be the games record holder, it's definitely a massive achievement for me. It's come pretty quick. I still feel like I've got a few more years left in me, but we'll see how we go."
Castello paid tribute to Gleeson's contribution.
"I got to the club the same time as Dom, and his professionalism, I took a lot out of the way he prepares for games and the way he went about preparing things for the boys," Castello said.
The Taylors Lakes resident rates Gleeson, Robertson and AFL pair James Podsiadly and Michael Barlow as the best he has played alongside.
And Castello is hopeful the curtains will not close on his VFL career anytime soon.
"I'll see how the body holds up, but at the moment it's not too bad," he said.
"The good thing about it is you've got these young kids coming through every year and it sort of rejuvenates you as a player and as a person. I hope I've got a couple more years, but obviously it depends how the body holds up."
Castello remains optimistic about Werribee's prospects this year despite a hit-and-miss start to its campaign.
"We've been a bit up and down, but I think it's only little patches in games that have let us down," Castello said.
"We've shown for the majority of games that we can match it with the best, so we've got massive belief that if we can put four-quarter efforts together we can have a massive crack."
