Nick Holman had a tough and turbulent introduction to AFL football. Debuting for Carlton in front of a notoriously vocal Port Adelaide crowd of 52,505 on a Friday night at Adelaide Oval in August 2014, he copped a 103-point hiding and was promptly dropped the following week.

He waited 10 months for his next opportunity, which came a fortnight after Carlton had sacked 700-game master coach Mick Malthouse and handed the reins to caretaker coach John Barker.

But in a cryptic way it may have been a blessing because Holman’s second AFL game in Round 13 2015 introduced him to what would become his second AFL ‘home’ at the Gold Coast SUNS.

And for whom, 10 years less nine days later, he’ll play his 150th AFL game against Hawthorn at People First Stadium on Friday night.

It’s been quite a journey, and although Holman played only 23% game time in a 34-point Carlton win over the SUNS at Marvel Stadium all those years ago, he made it count.

He was ‘lively’, said the AFL website match report, and with eight possessions in the last term ‘looked comfortable at the level’.

Twelve years on, having turned 31 last Friday, Holman is the only member of his debut team still playing in the AFL, and yet another example of what has become commonplace in the AFL, where a good performance against an opposition club often leads to a subsequent opportunity at the same club.

The hard-at-it utility was delisted by Carlton at the end of the 2015 season, having played nine games for a 1-8 record and 83 possessions. His only win in navy blue had been against the SUNS.

It was quite a fall for a young man who in 2013 had been vice-captain of the Murray Bushrangers in his second season in the VFL U18 competition, and best afield for his home town of Kyabram in a drought-breaking Goulburn Valley premiership.

He’d been drafted by the Blues at #51 in the national draft and was described in the 2014 AFL Guide as “a hard-working left-footer who prides himself on his ferocious attack on the contest and is a fierce tackler .. good around the stoppages and appears to be the type who will win admirers for his playing style."

The young-looking country boy had been rated ahead of Hawthorn captain James Sicily and 200-gamers Darcy Byrne-Jones and Karl Amon, who went at #52, #56 & #58 in the same draft, and dual Brisbane premiership player Charlie Cameron, who went to Adelaide six days later as a rookie.

But suddenly it was all over. Holman was part of a wholesale cleanout at Carlton in which the club, having collected the wooden spoon with a 4-18 record under caretaker coach Barker, moved on 15 players.

Chris Judd, Andrew Carazzo and David Ellard retired, Lachie Henderson, Tom Bell, Troy Menzel and Chris Yarran were traded, and seven others were delisted.

Henderson played six years and 89 games at Geelong, Bell played three years and 21 games at Brisbane, and Menzel played four games in one year at Adelaide. Yarran, traded to Richmond for a first-round pick, never played again.

It was the end of the AFL ‘road’ for the delisted seven – Queenslander Tom Fields (2 games), Cameron Giles (0), Blaine Johnson (7), Fraser Russell (0), Brad Walsh (3), Robbie Warnock (88) and Matthew Watson (23). But not Holman.

He headed to the SANFL to start again. And in 2016-17, playing with a Central Districts side that reached finals both years, he earned a second crack at the AFL – at the SUNS.

He was made to wait until pick #19 in the rookie draft on 27 November 2017 before joining the SUNS one pick after Liam Baker, now West Coast captain, went to Richmond, three picks ahead of 2023 Collingwood premiership player Brody Mihocek, now at Melbourne, and eight picks ahead of highly rated Sydney forward Joel Amartey.

Holman became SUNS player #98 when he wore red and yellow for the first time alongside Lachie Weller and Aaron Young in a 16-point Cairns win over North Melbourne in Round 1 2018.

In what was his 10th AFL game he played under his third coach as Stuart Dew took the reins from 2017 caretaker coach Dean Solomon, who had taken over after the exit of Rodney Eade.

Wearing the #39 SUNS jumper, Holman had 12 possessions and 14 tackles (still an equal career best) to begin a nine-year stint at People First Stadium where he’s lived by a philosophy made famous by NBA great Allen Iverson, who once said: “I play every game like it’s my last game."

Why? Because he’s seen the SUNS debut of 29 players who are no longer at the club and another 28 who are still there, and welcomed 11 teammates who are yet to debut. He understands the “no guarantees” nature of the country’s premier football competition.

Having finished ninth in the SUNS best and fairest in 2021 and 2022, Holman also outlasted any of the SUNS draftees in 2013 – Kade Kolodjashnij (#5), Jack Leslie (#20), Sean Lemmens (#27) and rookie Louis Herbert. And he’s played more games than Kolodjashnij (80), Leslie (20) and Herbert (3), and with his 150th on Saturday night will top Lemmens’ 149.

Along the way he’s also claimed a double distinction matched only by ex-teammate Steven May – he holds the club games record in two different jumper numbers.

While May played most games in #45 (17) and #17 (106), Holman tops the list in #39 at 62 games and, after a change in 2022, has notched 78 games in #7 to surpass the previous best of 44 held by the SUNS’ inaugural #7 Karmichael Hunt.

He’s 12th on the SUNS games list at 140, having been passed by Noah Anderson and Wil Powell in recent weeks, and 15th on the goals list at 78. And he is one of only seven players – and two active players – to rank top 15 in both.

The others? Ben King, 14th for games and outright first for goals, is the other current player in both groups, while Ben Ainsworth, Sam Day, Tom Lynch, Alex Sexton and David Swallow complete the top 15 double-ups.

Holman has been a wonderful servant of the club and, despite living a long way from home, has earned inclusion on the official “notable residents” list at Kyabram, a town of about 7500 people 200km north of Melbourne.

It’s a list which includes Australian music industry legend Molly Meldrum, AFL stars Garry Lyon and Brett Deledio and Test cricketer Jim Higgs, plus John Allan, Victorian Premier from 1924-27 and Australia’s first Country Party Premier in any state.

Having been terribly disappointed to lose his spot in the AFL side a week out from the finals last year, and been forced to watch the first nine games this year, Holman is taking it one game at a time now that he’s back in the side.

And at a time when the SUNS desperately need a win, Holman will be hoping his 150th delivers the same result as his 50th and 100th, when he enjoyed a 32-point SCG win over Sydney in 2020 and a seven-point Darwin win over the Western Bulldogs in 2023.