Mark Mercuri celebrates his 200-game milestone this Saturday night against West Coast. He has tasted the highs and lows of football over his 12-year career at Esssendon. In 2002 Mercuri was ranked 41^st in the Champions of Essendon. The following story is taken from the book – Champions of Essendon – and reflects on Mercuri’s brilliant career.

The average football fan habitually dreams about ‘what might have been’, had they been blessed with some football talent. Some fans actually find themselves feeling a little jealous of the brilliance displayed by AFL players each weekend. Watching Mark Mercuri must reduce these fans to tears.

Mercuri is a supremely talented footballer. He has speed, superb skills on both sides of his body, and the special footballing awareness reserved for the chosen few. He kicks goals and sets them up for others. Former teammate Barry Young believes that, for his height, Mercuri is the best overhead mark in the game. ‘Mercs’ has it all.

Current teammates rate him as highly as anyone playing the game today. Essendon captain James Hird acknowledges Mercuri as the best player he has played with in his career – high praise from a man who has run our alongside some of this club’s finest. Mark Johnson concurs. ""He’s the best player I have ever seen at an level,"" Johnson said. ""My first season was in 1999, and he was just awesome. No-one could touch him.""

Mercuri was a relatively late starter, first playing competitive football with Keilor Park under-14s. His parents weren’t too keen on the idea of him playing football, but one of Mercuri’s mates – a bloke by the name of Joe Misiti – talked him into letting young Mark have a go. ""I thought I could pull off the recruiting coup of the year, and I did,"" Misiti recalled. ""He had the ball on a string down there.""

Mercuri graduated to the North-West under-15s and the Essendon under-19s before making his debut as one of the ‘Baby Bombers’ in 1992. He played just three games that season, but the scene was set. In 1993 he started in the seniors. He missed four games with injury mid-season but was back to his best come Grand Final day. It was just Mercuri’s 20^th senior game, but he was anything but overawed. Mercuri was sensational on that famous day, starring around the ground and kicking three goals, and only Michael Long prevented him from winning the Norm Smith Medal.

Tomorrow we look at Mercuri's brilliant 1999 season, where he came runner-up in the Brownlow Medal and easily won the club's best and fairest.