In measuring the true worth of an AFL footballer, you can do a lot worse than reflect on how well they performed in premiership campaigns.
Defender Corey Enright was a key member of the Geelong teams that won flags in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
And on the latter two occasions he took home the club’s best and fairest award as well.
Which, if nothing else, suggested that the unassuming Enright is held in much higher esteem by his club than by umpires, who have seen fit to only award him 22 Brownlow Medal votes across his first 15 seasons.
At Simonds Stadium against Melbourne on Sunday, the 33-year-old will join Ian Nankervis and John “Sam” Newman as the only Cats to gain entry to the 300-game club.
For Enright it hasn’t been a case of limping to the milestone.
Far from it.
He was widely considered to have been best afield in last Friday night’s impressive away win over Port Adelaide, although history says it probably won’t be enough to earn him the three Brownlow votes from the match officials.
Not that it would worry Enright.
For him, the path to long-term success is pretty straightforward.
“There’s no secret,” he said on Monday.
“Just a lot of hard work.
“We’ve had some good players around me as a team and to work at a great club like Geelong makes it a little easier.
“You’ve got to have the energy, you’ve got have the fight and you’ve got to be competitive and I think I’ve got all those three things.”
Enright – who hails from the small South Australian town of Kimba – has yet to give serious thought to whether he will push on for a 16th AFL season in 2016, when he would potentially have Nankervis’s club record of 325 matches at his mercy.
Asked to name the biggest influences on his career, Enright chose Mark Thompson – the senior coach for his first decade at the Cattery – former assistant coach Brendan McCartney and champion fullback Matthew Scarlett.
He is proud to be forever linked with fellow 1999 draftees Joel Corey, Paul Chapman and Cameron Ling, all of whom went on to become triple premiership teammates.
Another much less celebrated member of the class of `99, 17-gamer Daniel Foster, also has a link to the long-running Enright story that continues to this day.
As a hyperactive six-year-old, Enright was nicknamed Boris by a family friend – after German tennis ace Boris Becker.
“It’s a long story – but it’s not a very good story,” said Enright.
“I was sort of hoping that when I got to Geelong I could have a new nickname.
“But unfortunately I got drafted with Daniel Foster, who I knew, and it stuck.
“So everyone knows me as Boris.”
The many footballing achievements of Corey Enright
Drafted in 1999
* 299 games from 2001-
* Geelong best and fairest in 2007 and 2009
* Premiership player in 2007, 2009 and 2011
* All Australian in 2008-11 and 2013
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