FOOTBALL has been kind to Warrnambool's Jackson Bell.
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The 24-year-old, who will play his 150th game for the Blues against Hamilton Kangaroos this Saturday, can count how many games he has missed in his entire eight-year senior playing career on one hand.
"I've had a good run of injuries and probably only missed one game," the midfielder said.
"It could be two games at most but I know I definitely missed one when I broke my collarbone and missed the grand final in 2014. I've had a bit of good luck and touchwood it continues."
Bell, who made his debut as an 17-year-old in 2012, said the key to ensuring his injury luck continued was "not overloading my training" and beach recovery.
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The grand final Bell watched from the sidelines was the year Koroit began its run to five consecutive flags with a 16-point victory.
But by that time Bell had already tasted football's ultimate team success twice. His first flag came in his debut season when the Blues, coached at the time by Scott Carter, defeated Cobden by 37 points.
Bell kicked two goals that day to help secure the club's fourth premiership since the turn of the century.
His second came the following year when the Blues proved to strong for Koroit in another 37-point win. This time around Bell was one of Warrnambool's best players as it secured back-to-back triumphs.
The Tyre Plus employee, who also has a passion for training greyhounds, said the two premiership victories were the highlight of his career so far.
The seven-time Hampden interleague representative credited two retired Blues for helping shape him into the player he is now.
"Dustin McCorkell and Josh Walters were in the midfield when I first started," the two-time Blues' best and fairest said.
"They were some of the best midfielders going around at the time and they were very influential on me."
Bell, who started his career playing wing before shifting to an onball role, said he was pleased to see the Blues, under second-year mentor Matt O'Brien, thriving once again as finals contenders.
"It's been nice to get off to good start after being 0-6 last year and it's good to get back to the top end of the ladder but we are still trying to amp it up but still take things one week at a time," he said.
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The former Vic Country representative said country football had change a lot since he began his career.
"I've been going to the beach a lot more the last couple of years, which has helped me a bit, since it has been coming into our game with the sport at a local level becoming more professional," he said.
"We only did it if we played finals (back in the premiership years) when we would just go to the pool when Scott (Carter) was coaching and now we go to the beach after every game.
"You have got to change with the times and the Hampden league is pretty professional now when I look back at when I started but you have got to do what you gotta do."
Bell has enjoyed his seven-year stint with the Bottle Greens, which includes winning the best on ground medal against South East in 2017, and also said times have changed with the league's representative team.
"I started playing interleague in 2013 and I don't think I've missed one since," he said.
"The last three years have been good with us getting a few wins on the board. When I first started we would rock up and be losing by 80 points or more so it's good to get the wins on the board and go up the rankings."
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