Accolades for ultimate clubman Mitchell Aubusson with 300 in sight

Sydney Roosters veteran Mitchell Aubusson is about to chalk up his 300th game but his focus is on another premiership.

Mitchell Aubusson has been the ultimate clubman at the Roosters. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Mitchell Aubusson ran a mile on Sunday when he was asked how he felt about hitting the magical 300-game barrier against St George Illawarra on Thursday night.

No surprises there. Aubusson has always been a team player. Individual accolades? He’s happy to reflect on them in retirement. Just not now. Not while he has work to do to help the Sydney Roosters win a third successive title.

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“He’s one of the best people in rugby league I have come across,” five-eighth Luke Keary said.

“The regard he is held in around this club is probably right up the top. He is not a very public person – he is very private, cares about his family and friends, cares about this club.

“I think it is a travesty that he has never played State of Origin or for his country. He is one of the most consistent players to play this game.

“He is probably one of the greatest to pull the Roosters jersey on. He is held in very, very high regard. You get the sense of how selfless he is from the outside.

“The thing people don’t get to see is his leadership around the club – what he does for the younger guys, what he does for people around him during training and off the field.

“He is always making people better around him.”

Aubusson is content to play a bit-part role these days, although the Roosters’ injury concerns have put him back in the frontline as they prepare to face the Dragons at WIN Stadium.

He has had chances to leave the club in the past but given them short shrift. A job at the club is waiting for him in retirement, whenever that may be.

It could come as early as the end of this season for the 32-year-old.

“He’s just an outstanding person, very loyal,” Roosters patriarch and chair Nick Politis said.

“He’s never been shopped around. He has always said don’t waste your time, I am not going anywhere. Two or three years ago he could have got a lot more than we were offering him. He told us to just do the best we could. When he retires he will have a job at the club.”

That process has already begun. Aubusson works one day a week at the Roosters, learning the ins and outs of the rugby league business.

You get the feeling that one day he would make a coach given the way he has played his career, putting a premium on hard work and sacrifice.

Money hasn’t been the most important thing. His priority has been the respect of his teammates and giving his all for a club that has given him so much in return.

Ask him his greatest memories and he doesn’t necessarily linger on the grand finals. He also talks about games when the Roosters megastars were missing and others stepped into the breach.

Aubusson will on Thursday night become only the 40th player in the game’s history to reach 300 games. Few have deserved it more.

“I felt like I have had to fight each week for my spot in the team,” he said.

“Nothing was taken for granted. I don’t go and do what I do so my teammates have an opinion either way of me when I finish.

“I go out there for my family and I want to hold myself to a high standard. I am not sure what sort of opinion my teammates should have of me – as long as I was a guy they were happy to play with and I gave them something.”