When Nick Haynes arrived at the GIANTS he was drafted as a 78kg tall midfielder at pick number seven in the 2011 NAB AFL Draft.

Fast forward five years and Haynes is a 90kg key defender about to play his 50th AFL game.

It hasn’t been a meteoric rise to the top like some around him, but the laid-back 24-year-old has  appreciated the journey.

“It’s been a long five years, it’s good to finally get to 50 games,” Haynes told GIANTS TV. 

“I made my debut in Geelong so it’s got some good memories there and looking forward to plying my 50th there.”

After being drafted as a midfielder, Haynes was tried as a forward in his formative days after making his debut in round 10, 2012.

The story goes that late in his second year - after being in and out of the side - former GIANTS veteran and Assistant Coach Chad Cornes went down the night before the game and Haynes was thrown in defence.

It wasn’t a natural fit but Cornes remained out and week-by-week Haynes grew into the role.

“I started up forward and probably found it pretty hard to cement my spot in that way,” he said. 

“I came into the League pretty light as well and pretty raw so it took me a couple of years to get the AFL-standard football. 

“The last two years have been good and hopefully the defence suits me more than down forward.”

Interestingly, it was Cornes who have Haynes both his opportunity and his belief.

“Early on Chad Cornes was a player who played forward and down back and also through the midfield and we had a lot of good chats about he had a similar career to me,” Haynes said. 

“At the start he was very light and very raw as well. The player he turned into and the way he said he started off like that gave me a lot of motivation and belief I could play AFL football.”

The years went by and if not for bad luck with injury, Haynes would have reached this milestone much sooner.

A broken ankle ruined his 2014 year before he played the best season of his career with 18 games last year.

Haynes is a unique facet of the GIANTS backline, standing just 192cm tall but often given the job on much taller and bigger opponents.

Courageous and agile, Haynes reads the ball beautifully and flies for marks at every opportunity, winning the 2015 GIANTS Mark of the Year with a spectacular effort against the Hawks.

This week is just his sixth game of the season after pre-season surgery but he hasn’t missed a beat since coming in as a late replacement for Ryan Griffen in round six.

“I had a bit of a slow start, I had surgery in December on my groin but I’ve been running since January so I had a good block of running and was able to get my fitness up,” he said. 

“I played some footy in the twos to get myself AFL ready and then played the last five games. It’s been good having four wins on the board, four in a row it was really good to be a part of.”

With every milestone comes the opportunity to reflect on the journey so far. Haynes can see how far the club has come both on and off field.

“We’re a very close group, we all started together back at Breakfast Point and we’re all in that age group that we’re really close mates and I think that translates on the field as well,” he said.

While often given the match-up on much bigger opponents, Haynes was relieved to have some more support in defence for his milestone match with co-captain Phil Davis returning to the backline.

“I don’t want to play on Tom Hawkins so Phil can go straight to him,” Haynes laughed.

“Phil’s a great player in not just beating his man but all the people around him he makes better as well. Having him out there is a massive bonus for us.”

Coming off a career-best 22 possessions in last week’s loss to Adelaide, Haynes is just looking forward to staying on the field and looking forward to the next 50 games.

“It’s a good little milestone and hopefully it continues and I want to play some consistent footy and some regular footy and hopefully over the next few years I can roll some games together.”