FROM being rookie-listed by another club, to the disappointment of being delisted, to dominating the VFL, to becoming a Carlton rookie and then a mainstay and a leader in the senior line-up.

If that tale rings a bell, it’s because it’s the story of this week’s milestone man, Ed Curnow. And yet, it bears a striking resemblance to another favourite son of IKON Park — and a long-time teammate of Curnow’s.

The similarity in football journeys is just one of the many reasons that Andrew Carrazzo will be watching on with an enormous sense of pride when Curnow runs out for the 200th time in the Navy Blue.

For Carrazzo, it boils down to what he regards as a simple fact which they’ve both proven oh so wrong: “the stats say that a player like Ed and a player like me should only play for four years”.

While the boyhood Bluebagger didn’t quite reach the double century - injury ended the 2007 John Nicholls Medallist’s career at 194 - the chance to see his former teammate and great mate achieve the milestone is purely a testament to hard work.

“It’s actually quite uncanny how similar everything has turned out for me and Ed: in our playing styles and in our leadership qualities, we’re very similar,” Carrazzo told Carlton Media this week.

“When he came to Carlton, he played in a similar position to me and I almost saw him as a threat.

“The more I got to know him and the more I got to be around him, seeing what kind of person he is and how hard he worked week-to-week, I couldn’t be more proud of him — for how consistent he has been, the player he has become and to have the career he has had.”

Of course, Carrazzo and Curnow both earned their reputations at Carlton and throughout the competition as hard-checking but fair taggers who negated their direct opposition but were also able to find plenty of the football.

Both were at IKON Park in key moments for the other: Carrazzo was a member of the leadership group when Curnow ran out for his first game in Round 1 of 2011, while both chested the banner when Carrazzo ran out for the final time in the closing game of the 2015 season.

Ahead of Curnow’s 200th game tomorrow afternoon, Carrazzo was asked what the first thing was that came to mind when asked about Carlton’s 38th double centurion: the answer was immediate.

“Persistence. People talk about talent — whether this bloke has talent or the other bloke has talent. One thing that’s not really spoken about very often as a talent is how tough someone is mentally,” he said.

“Ed is as tough mentally as any player I’ve played with. For me, that’s more important than any physical attribute.

“The players that play footy for a long time are the ones that are mentally strong: they are persistent and they know who they are. Ed definitely knows who he is.”

It’s high praise from someone who started his career playing alongside Anthony Koutoufides and ended it alongside Chris Judd, but it’s hard to argue with him.

It was in Judd’s absence in the opening round of 2010 when Carrazzo stepped up for one of the great honours of his career: captaining his boyhood club in what proved to be a winning effort against Richmond, a night where - as fate would have it - Dustin Martin and Damien Hardwick were making their playing and coaching debuts on the other side.

Nine years later, it was Curnow’s turn to lead the team out with Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty both unavailable.

“When you come from a position where Ed and I came from in terms of being a rookie, the prospect of captaining the Club - whether it’s one game or 10 games - is never something that enters your mind,” he said.

“You’re playing for survival, you’re playing for your future. Those sort of things, like becoming captain or playing 200 games, you don’t even think about.

“I loved that game as captain. For Ed to experience that and have that feeling as the leader at the Club, albeit for a short period of time, is a credit to him as a person. He deserves it.”

It’s second nature for Carrazzo, who was a rookie at Geelong before finding his way onto Carlton’s list, to tune in on the weekends and watch a combination of his former teammates and new Blues run out: he was as Navy Blue as they come, even before being drafted.

As a former player and a lifelong fan, he believes that it’s only natural that the way Curnow plays his football will resonate with those watching from their couch tomorrow afternoon.

After all, it’s being passed onto the next generation of Carrazzo footballers.

“It’s obvious: the fans who watch the game aren’t idiots. The players that go out every week who maybe aren’t the most fashionable but go out and give everything they’ve got — that’s all you want as a supporter,” he said.

“You want consistent effort from your team and you want players that show passion and who care. Ed has brought all of those categories to the Club for a long, long time.

“My daughter has Ed’s number on her back for that reason. She loves watching him play, watching him run and trying to teach her the right way to approach her footy.”