St Pat's Heath Naughton, Kane Arendarcikas and Dean Carroll's milestones

Dean Carroll's groin was crushed by a cricket pitch roller around three decades ago and 15 years later, it almost cost him a limb.

His great mate and fellow milestone man Heath Naughton takes up the story.

"We were playing at North Albury and the next thing Dean's getting carried out of the dressing rooms and taken to hospital," he said.

"After the game his dad (Tom), brother (Mick) and myself went up to the hospital in Albury and the doctor said, 'if we can't free up your groin area to get blood flow, we're going to have to look at amputation'," he recalled.

"And Dean, without even taking a breath, just said, 'so is that above or below the knee'?

"The doctor goes, 'below' and Dean says, 'OK'. I said, 'hang on a minute, nobody's cutting anyone's leg off today, that's not happening'. Dean was like, 'OK, I'll just take this in my stride and they're the cards you're dealt, that's it'. I'm like, 'woo, everyone just back off for a minute'."

Carroll takes up the story.

"I knew it (losing the leg could happen one day) and when he said, 'lower leg', I said, 'thank you, gave him the thumbs up and said, 'I'm going to sleep'," he explained.

"You see I had prepped myself and if it had been the lower half of the leg, I would have been happy."

Carroll was finally booked for a flight to Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital.

"I'm watching him leave and I thought, 'is that the last time I'm going to see my best mate'?," an emotional Naughton recalled.

Carroll underwent a seven-hour operation and he was to have seven in a four-week period and again almost lost the leg to infection.

After the original accident he was told he would never play sport again.

He's just racked up his 200^th club game, more than 30 years after his first.

Naughton himself has clocked up 300, while another great mate in Kane Arendarcikas posted 350.

Given what the trio went through then, as well as the loss of dearly beloved young clubman Braedon Hensel to cancer in 2014, it's little wonder the trio's remained tight.

"We've been through a lot and it's a special bond, that's why we're best mates and always will be," Naughton said.

Arendarcikas agrees, but along with the tough times, there's been stacks of fun.

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"The best thing about playing with all those young blokes is you can rehash all the old material to a new audience (laughs), but by playing with all the young guys you can walk in the gate at St Pat's for years and have a connection," he said.

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"They're A grade captains and now they're giving back to the juniors, how good is that?," proud president Tony Maher said.