VFL 2019: David Mirra to play 150th senior game for Box Hill Hawks

In its 69 years in the VFA/VFL, Box Hill has had only five players reach the 150-game mark. This Sunday Hawks champion David Mirra will become the sixth. He’s come a long way since his modest debut in 2010.

David Mirra in straight-ahead mode for Box Hill Hawks.

It’s a milestone that has been celebrated only rarely at the City Oval.

Box Hill has been playing in the VFA/VFL for 69 years.

In that time, only a handful of players has reached the 150-game mark, all under the club’s former handle of the Mustangs.

Jack Wright (180 games), Keith White (171), Ian Bates (165), John Baker (155) and Vic Lawther (153) make up the Hawks’ fab five.

This Sunday, against Richmond at the City Oval, David Mirra will extend the exclusive club to six when he plays his 150th senior game in the VFL.

It will be an accolade to sit snugly alongside such achievements as two senior premierships, the captaincy (he’s the club’s longest serving skipper), a best and fairest, a Norm Goss Medal, Victorian selection and a closetful of team-of-the-year jumpers.

Next month the Hawks name an All Stars team to celebrate 20 years of the Box Hill-Hawthorn alignment.

Mirra will be among the first players picked — and without wanting to nudge chairman of selectors and former club president Johnny Ure, he appeals as the likely skipper.

David Mirra gets away a handball for the Hawks in his first full season of VFL, 2011.

Due in part to his loyalty, Mirra has become Box Hill royalty.

But when he joined the club in 2010, he was no more than a hopeful from the Eastern Ranges.

He made his debut that season under the coaching of Brendon Bolton. It was hardly a pointer of the honours to come.

Up against North Ballarat at the City Oval, the Hawks wore an alternative jumper. Mirra had a handful of possessions and no more than 30 per cent game time.

Kieran McShane, a fleeting name at City Oval, made his debut on the same day. Box Hill was thumped. Mirra was dropped the next week.

But he had an encouraging season. He won the Development League best and fairest and played in the premiership team (Marco Bello, now a Hawthorn assistant coach, kicked a crucial goal in the last quarter and Justin Plapp, now an assistant at Melbourne, coached the Hawks team).

David Mirra playing for Eastern in 2009.

After his first season Mirra never played Development League football again, but he said it gave him a good grounding in the VFL. He became a strong advocate for it.

By 2013 he was a senior premiership player — and with Daniel Pratt not playing, he captained the grand final team, lifting the cup with coach Damian Carroll.

By then Mirra was a staple on lists pertaining to VFL draft prospects, his ability as an adaptable defender well noted. He could create and, on opponents of all shapes and sizes, he could negate.

But the years passed and no AFL club went for him.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the unluckiest VFL player of them all? Why, it had to be David Mirra.

Who could have guessed the kick to come in his career.

At the end of 2017, Mirra contemplated a move to local football. He was getting busier at work, a number of his Box Hill teammates had left the club and he’d achieved a lot in the VFL. The Eastern league or the VAFA looked appealing to him.

Then Hawthorn’s list manager Graeme Wright called and said the Hawks might draft him.

“That changed everything,’’ he said.

David Mirra marks on his AFL debut last year.

He was taken as a rookie. And when he made his AFL debut early last season against Melbourne, the former St Simon’s junior was 27 years of age.

“Yeah, a good age,’’ he said. “I wanted to be drafted straight out of the under-18s from the Eastern Ranges. When I look back at it, while I was upset and disappointed and frustrated, I’m grateful for the path that I took.

“I was fortunate to go to a great club like Box Hill and at the same time sort out my life off the field. I was able to knock off a double degree and work full-time.’’

Mirra has played 11 AFL matches. He would like to have played more, “but that’s just the way it’s gone’’.

He isn’t complaining. “I’ve had the best of both worlds in the past couple of years,’’ he said. “When I’m not playing AFL, I’m playing VFL and at a club where I feel at home.’’

The 150-game milestone means a lot to Mirra (and to Hawthorn; its media staff contacted Leader this morning asking for a splash on the right-footer).

Lawther was the last Box Hill player to meet it, in 1983.

“To be only the sixth player from the club to do it, and knowing how hard it is these days to do it in the VFL system, now that there’s no Development League and there’s the enticement of playing local footy and getting good cash for half the work … it’s pretty special,’’ Mirra said.

“I remember when I started out. You’d look at the honour board and think, ‘Far out, it will take me forever to get there’. But here we are at 150, in the blink of an eye really.’’

Former Carlton coach Bolton is overseas. This morning he sent a message about his former player.

“He has always had a mindset of ‘team first’ and is an excellent intercept mark,’’ Bolton said.

“A great example to all who play VFL about the importance of perseverance.

“Please pass on my congratulations to Dave.’’

By chance, this Sunday is Box Hill’s annual life members’ lunch, and four of the five 150-game players will be in attendance.

They can welcome Mirra to their small but classy club.

David Mirra (middle) sings the Hawthorn song with Jaeger O’Meara and Jarryd Roughead.

DAVID MIRRA ON HIS FATHER, MICHAEL

“He’s had the biggest influence on my career, hands down. He instilled passion, resilience, the love for the game in me. Without him putting that into me I don’t think I would have played as much senior footy as I have. When it’s all said and done he was the one who really ignited that passion for footy in me. I was an Essendon supporter growing up and I remember going to the ’99 prelim. We got done by a point. I remember going to the MCG with my father all the time. I was very lucky to get that sort up of passion for the game from him.’’