Zac Dawson: The good, the bad and the ugly

"We went to 'the cockroach' [then Saints coach Ross Lyon] and asked if it was a good idea if Zac moved in with me," Baker recalls.

"It was a definite 'no!'

"We didn't listen. Being rebellious we did it anyway. Myself, him and Jack Steven were living together for a while. That was a bit of a rough household! I won't talk about the shenanigans we got up to, but if we did it these days it'd be frowned upon."

Baker hadn't picked Dawson for the loveable larrikin type. The antagonistic Saints stopper had seen Dawson from afar during his first incarnation as stripling Hawthorn defender - infamously ragdolled by Anthony Rocca and Nathan Thompson in 2006.

"I remember when I first met him thinking he was a sort of tall, shy nerd.

"The first time we had a beer together and we let the hair down I knew there was a bit of a wild side to him, and we had a great relationship, and we turned into best buddies pretty quickly."

Dawson, 30, has been many things, but perhaps above all he is a survivor. On Sunday he will take to Etihad Stadium for his 150th game. It is a milestone reached in spite of many hurdles: those early setbacks against the monster forwards, being dumped by Hawthorn, off-field dramas at the Saints, a tendency to get himself suspended, a calamitous 2013 grand final, and last year: groin and thumb injuries.

Then there have been the legions of detractors, partly a vestige of the Rocca and Thompson towellings, partly because of Dawson's longstanding kicking issues, and partly due to a perception that Dawson may not have made it if not for Lyon, whom Dawson followed across the Nullarbor at the end of 2011.

Kepler Bradley played alongside Dawson at Lyon's Fremantle. Now coaching Claremont's reserves, the former Essendon and Docker utility says accusations of favouritism from Lyon towards Dawson are nonsense. "Zac gets treated just as any other player would. In terms of special treatment or anything like that, there's none of that," Bradley said.

Baker however acknowledges Lyon's impact on Dawson's career. "Ross really believed in Zac. And I think with good reason. He'd always give 100 per cent no matter what. I think that's the thing Rossy loves in his players."

While the bulk of Dawson's career has been played under Lyon, it was at the Peter Schwab-led Hawks that the beanpole from Doutta Stars started his AFL journey.  By his own admission, Schwab didn't get to know Dawson well, as Hawthorn's disastrous 2004 campaign precipitated the coach's early demise. Now Brisbane Lions recruiting chief, Schwab has looked on from afar, and admired the footballer Dawson has become. "When he first came down I thought, 'Oh he's going to take some time. He just hasn't got the physical body for it,"' Schwab remembered.

"He was a pretty quiet kid. I knew he was going to have to ply his trade a little bit in the VFL at that stage, even at times the development league."

It was going to be a slow-burn, but the Hawks had found a player, even though his best football would not ultimately be played in the brown and gold. "He's had a really good career. He's much-maligned. A lot of people knock him. But they're really hard to find, key defenders. We took the punt on him as a key position player, and that's what he's turned out to be."

Schwab noted the scrutiny that comes with being the last line in defence. "It's probably the hardest job in footy. Because it's very hard to be an offensive player in that role. And you can get taken to the cleaners every now and then. And people remember: 'you're the bloke who played on someone who kicked six, or you're the bloke who played on someone who kicked seven.'"

For all the mischief off the field - and Baker says there was plenty - Dawson approaches his football seriously. His failures are taken to heart, according to Baker, with whom Dawson shared a back 50 in three grand finals. "He is one of those players that does get massively down on himself," Baker said.

"He's generally absolutely shattered when he gets beaten. I think when he does get beaten - he'll go out and work on something that he does do wrong.

"He does come across as a bit of a 'blase doesn't care' kind of guy, but he gives depth of effort each game."

His limitations are clear, but Dawson has done his job, and Baker is loath to underplay his influence in the St Kilda teams that came so close to lifting the premiership cup. "Zac was one of the guys that you'd know would have your back 100 per cent. He was a bit of a quiet lad, but he was the one that controlled the back six."

Bradley played on Dawson both in the VFL and AFL. He described the experience of being stood by the man who eventually became a teammate, and a close friend.  "He's got this uncanny ability to blanket an opponent.

"Not only that he's got this ability to bump blokes and put in a few knees and elbows, and he's managed to hurt a few guys along his journey. He's really hard at the footy.

"You knew you were in for a big day when you got him, because he just sticks to his role. Every time I lined up on him I knew I was in for a big day."

And then there's Dawson the bloke - the guy who featured clothed in the widely-circulated nude photo of Nick Riewoldt, the guy who was suspended for mixing sleeping tablets and alcohol on a pre-season camp in New Zealand, and the guy who took to Twitter to celebrate Channel Ten losing the AFL rights on the basis that Robert Walls would be out of a job.

He has avoided controversy at the Dockers, but Bradley says Dawson retains a laconic presence away from the game. "I'd heard (before Dawson came to Fremantle) through the grapevine that he's a great character and a great fella, and that he doesn't mind having a laugh and a giggle. When he did rock up to Freo he was exactly that. When it was time to play footy he'd knuckle down and train as hard as he can, and play as hard as he can in games, and then as soon as it's time to relax and enjoy yourself and have a joke and a giggle, he really cares about his mates.

"You ask anyone at Freo, and he'd be in their top five blokes around the club, because he just puts a smile on everyone's dial and he's a pleasure to be around."

Baker remains a mate of Dawson's too, and says he hasn't changed too much since their days living together. "I was over in Freo at the end of last year. We caught up for coffee, which turned into a few beers. We ended up having an all-nighter and wound back the clock. So Zac, I'm sorry if that gets you in trouble but bad luck, I'm retired now so I don't give a shit!"