For Majak Daw, the journey to 50 games has admittedly taken longer than most, but that makes the milestone all the more significant.

This Sunday the 27-year-old will reach the milestone, nine years after being selected by North Melbourne in the 2010 Rookie Draft.

Having battled injuries for much of his career, 2018 has been a year free of any serious injuries for Daw, which has allowed him to build a strong fitness base and as a result, play some impressive football.

The Sudanese-born player struggled to find any real continuity in the senior team up until this year, given the bevy of experienced key-positions players in the side, such as Todd Goldstein, Drew Petrie and Jarrad Waite.

While he'd shown plenty of potential in the ruck, up forward and at times, even on the ball, Daw had been unable to lock down a spot.

But in 2018, in a completely new role in defence, he's come into his own.

The decision at the beginning of the 2017/18 pre-season by Brad Scott and the coaching staff to develop Daw as a defender raised the eyebrows of many, but the transformation has proven to be a masterstroke.

Forced to bide his time in the VFL for the first two weeks of the AFL season, Daw was a late inclusion for North’s Round 3 clash after Robbie Tarrant missed with hamstring tightness.

From there, he hasn't looked back.

Alongside veteran defenders Scott Thompson, Robbie Tarrant and Jamie Macmillan, ‘Maj’ credits his fellow defenders for telling him to back his ability and fly for marks when many would chose the safer option and spoil.

That confidence has made him one of the most dynamic defenders in the competition, averaging over 5 marks, 3 intercepts and 5.4 spoils a game, which has Champion Data now ranking him as “elite”.

In fact, in his past six games, Daw has averaged 7.3 marks.

His shift to the other end of the ground hasn’t taken away from his form in the middle or forward line either, with the 195 centimetre utility swinging forward in rounds 17 and 18 and kicking bags of four and three, respectively.

He provides relief to fellow big man Goldstein too, and certainly holds his own.

Having played no more than nine games in a season before 2018, Daw will run out for his 18th of the season and the 50th of his career, a great representation of the development and consistent performances we’ve seen from him in the past 12 months.