On his right arm is a tattooed image of his Nan, on his left, the old man - and when he breaks the banner for game No.100 this Saturday, Dennis Armfield knows they’ll both be there with him.

Dennis’s father Brett will be watching on from the stands high up at Etihad. His grandmother, the late Yvonne Roschmann, will be looking down from above. Yvonne died on Christmas Day last year, after bravely waging a second war with cancer.

“Nan was 73 and I was with her when she passed away,” Dennis said. “I last saw her on the morning of Christmas Eve and I said my goodbyes. I didn’t go back that night because Dad and Nan had their own time together and she died at 6.30 the next morning.”

In the weeks and months since Yvonne’s passing, Carlton’s No.27 has worn his grandmother’s image as a badge into the field of battle. “Nan has already ‘played’,” said Dennis, who got her inked portrait burnt into his flesh a few months ago. “Dad played last weekend, made his debut against Fremantle, because I got his portrait done a few days before the game.

“The whole thing started when I go a tattoo of Nan’s name, and slowly but surely got a bit carried away and added a few things,” he said. “One day I saw a photo of her on her hospital bedside table – an old photo from when she was a nurse in the Army - and I really liked it. It was something I’d never seen because I’d only seen Nan as an old lady and here she was as a young girl, so I thought ‘Why not?’.”

Though Yvonne never saw the tattooed portrait, she did get to see the one emblazoned across Dennis’ chest. As he said: “I have my Nan’s name and a cross there because she was religious, and I have a carnation and a rose because I remember that when I helped her out in the garden they were her favourite flowers. She was never a tattoo fan, she  always said ‘Don’t get it, don’t get it’, but I remember her face when she saw it and she was smiling.

“I know it all began with a few silly tattoos and I won’t deny it, but I have since dedicated my body to family tributes. I have my Nan on one side, Dad on the other and Mum to come, and obviously if I have a family of my own they’ll get put on there somewhere.  I’ve got to be grateful to those who raised me. They helped get me where I am and without them I wouldn’t be here.”

Dennis’ 20-year relationship with his grandmother was particularly close. Perhaps it’s where the eminently likeable 26 year-old finds his compassionate side.

“My Nan meant a lot to me. She was a big churchgoer, very religious and she probably pushed that side into me,” he said.

“When my father and I relocated from Canberra to Western Australia I was six and I lived with my grandmother the whole time pretty much. That was at Maida Vale in the Perth Hills.

“My grandmother always put herself second. If anyone needed help with anything she’d do it. She was more of a mother to me than a grandmother. There were a lot of times when Dad went away to work in the mines and it was just me and Nan.”

Dennis’ formative years were in part about self-preservation. Hacks like this one often try to pigeon-hole players, but in this instance he concurs with the view that his ultra-competitive nature was shaped by place and circumstance.

“I suppose being an only child you learn to fight for yourself,” he said. “When you’re out in the park with kids and they’re picking on you you’ve got no-one else. This is just who I am.

“Off the field I’m probably the exact opposite. I wouldn’t hurt a fly, I wouldn’t try to cause any trouble and I try to be a happy bloke, but as soon as I hit the field I become pretty competitive. I don’t like losing anything and I probably get that from my father. When I was a kid he never used to let me win anything until I actually earned the win.”

That competitive Armfield edge serves as the classic trademark of the man whose moniker will soon appear on the No.27 locker beneath those of Ollie Grieve, Des English and that other pit bull, Frankston’s Darren Hulme.

How does he see himself in the football jungle? “I’d probably say I’m a competitive, team player,” came the reply.

“My forward line coach John Barker calls me ‘the pit bull’ because while I might not be the cleanest or the most skilled player when I’m playing good footy, I’m a competitive, aggressive and hard at it team player who does whatever it takes to win the game,” Dennis said.

“That’s what I like to be known as and hopefully people see that when I’m out there.  I never give up and whether we’re winning or losing I try my hardest.”

Famously secured with Carlton’s third round selection (No.46 overall) earned as part of the famous Judd-Kennedy deal, Den, then burning up Bassendean Oval for Swan Districts, almost didn’t make it to Visy Park.

“When I nominated for the draft, I was in the pool for three years no matter what, and I got picked up in the third,” he recalled, “and if I wasn’t going to get picked up my intention was to go back to rugby at amateur level – nothing too serious – to play with my mates.

“I did think the moment had passed because there wasn’t really a lot of mature age players back then. At the time I was only 20 which wasn’t exactly mature, but to get picked up at that age back then was pretty rare.

“There were rumours other AFL clubs may have been interested, but I never really knew. Carlton was the only club that talked to me,” Dennis said.

“Shane Rogers (the then Recruiting Manager) came across to the state screening and I had an interview with him. Rogers told me there that he’d catch up with me afterwards, but I was in the car about to leave having forgotten all about the catch-up. Fortunately I spotted him as I was heading out and I said ‘Eh Dad, stop’ – and it’s pretty amazing to think that I could have blown my chance then and there.

“Anyway I had the meeting with Rogers, lucky enough him and ‘Ratts’ (the then Senior Coach Brett Ratten) approved, and I have them both to thank for getting me into the club.”

Ninety-nine games on, and “the pit bull” fronts up for the Bulldogs at the peak of his powers. And while he laments the fact that his mother Hetty cannot make it down (she’s committed to the running of a farm in Gunning in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales), he’s rapt his old schoolmates from Perth’s Kalamunda Primary are making the trek across, as is Armfield senior.

As for Yvonne Roshmann, whose ashes were scattered over Mt Browne in her home town of York, Western Australia, Dennis knows his beloved grandmother will truly be front and centre.

“When I run out I’ll think of all of them, particularly my grandmother,” Dennis said. “This sounds a bit silly, but my 100^th game will be one for her and I know she’ll be sitting in the front row next to God watching down.”