By Ken Casellas

He’s a modern-day buccaneer, a lovable adventurer whose football journey has taken him to all parts of Australia.

He wears his heart on his sleeve; he’s a nuts and bolts wholehearted performer who enjoys life to the full.

And at East Fremantle Oval on Saturday afternoon Mitch Andrews will celebrate his 100^th senior appearance in West Australian football when he leads the Claremont ruck into battle against the East Fremantle Sharks.

Tough and dependable and a great team man, Andrews has played senior football in Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The 29-year-old Andrews was born not far from Hobart and he started his senior career playing as a forward and ruckman for the Kingston Tigers in the TFL competition and at the age of 19 he was chosen in the Tassie Devils side and appeared in his one and only VFL match in Geelong.

Then the day after his 20^th birthday he and a group of mates left Tasmania for the Gold Coast in search of excitement and adventure. He joined the Broadbeach club and in 2008 was chosen in the Queensland side for the interstate match against WA in Townsville.

That experience whetted his appetite to advance his football career. “I thought I’d like to have a crack at playing in the WAFL,” he said. Andrews had a mate who had played with West Perth and he steered him to that club where football manager Ryan Lasscock welcomed him aboard. Lasscock is now chairman of selectors at Claremont.

After playing 20 league matches for West Perth in 2009 and 2010 Andrews travelled to Darwin to play for St Marys in the Northern Territory League in the summer months.

Claremont’s premier ruckman Andrew Ruck suffered a serious knee injury early in the 2011 season and Andrews received an SOS call from the Tigers to replace Ruck. And what a call to arms that turned out to be: Andrews had the thrill of playing in league premiership side with the Tigers in 2011 and 2012. He proved to be a wonderful asset for the Tigers and in his first season with the club he gained 568 hit-outs in 18 matches (an average of 31.5 per match).

Then after appearing in 20 WAFL matches in 2013 Andrews succumbed again to the travel bug and he satisfied his urge to see as much of the world as possible. He was suffering from an ankle injury, so he set off with teammate James Thomson for a tour through north, south and Central America. He returned to Perth half way through the football season and added another six WAFL matches to his list.

Then he played in 16 league matches last year and has started the 2016 season in excellent form. His 99 senior matches in WA are made up of 20 WAFL games for West Perth and 73 for Claremont as well as six Foxtel Cup appearances for the Tigers.

Though the Tigers have lost two of their first three matches this year Andrews is confident that the side will qualify for the finals. “It’s a matter of being able to finish off and play four quarters of good, solid football,” he said.