By his own admission, Matthew Boyd always get the best out of himself.

“When I put my mind to something I like seeing it through,” the veteran said speaking with The Age earlier this year.

Boyd will play his 250th game on Saturday night against Carlton, and in his 250 matches, has exemplified that as well as any player before him.

Boyd captained the Club from 2011 to 2013, was named All-Australian in 2009 and 2011, represented Australia in International Rules in 2008 and 2010, and has collected the Charles Sutton medal on three occasions (2009, 2011, 2012).

All of this after coming off the Club’s rookie list.

Boyd was drafted to the Bulldogs with pick number 23 in the 2002 Rookie Draft, and made his debut in round 7 2003 against Fremantle.

He has now played the fourth-most games of any AFL player off the rookie list, sitting behind only Dean Cox (290 games), Stephen Milne (275) and James McDonald (264).

Boyd typically played down the milestone, speaking with media earlier this week.

“It’s obviously a pretty significant achievement, I guess you don’t really think about it too much until after the fact.

“I just want to get out there and play and just help the boys get the right result.”

In a career-spanning 13 years, Boyd has played in 11 finals and credits his four finals’ wins as some of the best in his career.

“Any time you win finals is a pretty good moment, but we had a pretty significant moment in our journey earlier this year when we went up to Sydney and got a pretty famous victory.

“They’ve (Sydney) shown they’re pretty hard to beat, and to get a win with such a young group and such a committed effort in that game, that was a pretty significant moment in recent history.”