The 40-year-old has been a passionate supporter of the program over the past two decades and credits hockey with helping him through some of life's most difficult moments.

Donnolley insists the Spitfires remain as relevant as ever and is determined to see talented youngsters get the opportunities to follow in his footsteps.

"It means a fair bit," Donnolley said.

"It's a lot of years, 20 or more, that I've put into the team with the travel and all the commitments to make sure you're part of the team.

"Once you've put your hand up to be part of it, you give 100 percent, you can't decide you're not going to be there for a week just because there's somewhere else you want to be.

"I've missed out on a few things that would have been good to get to but you have your commitment to the team and that's just what you need to do.

"Seeing the development of players coming through and the culture we build, the mates you make, it becomes a family.

"We always say we're brothers, we spend so much time together and have to deal with everyone's stuff that you become very close.

"I've definitely got some of my best mates out of this team, they're not even part of it any more but we still catch up and it's like we've never been apart.

"It's something that's never going to go away.

"I just want to continue being part of this team to create that for younger people coming through because I know how much it helped me through difficult times in my life, having the support of all these blokes.

"I can already see it happening for the younger ones coming through, that they're able to communicate with these other players.

"It helps them through a bad day and they come out the other side with a big smile on their face."

Donnolley's biggest challenge was hugely personal.

"I lost my old man when I was 24," he said.

"That was a bit of a struggle because he had cancer, so it was horrible times.

"But having mates there to set me straight and keep me going, I don't know where I would have been if I didn't have that support from them.

"Recently we lost one of our good mates in Andrew Maggs, who was a really big part of the Spitfires.

"He passed away from cancer as well so that hit the community pretty hard.

"But it was the same thing, everyone banded together again and helped each other out which was really good to see."

ALSO IN SPORT

The close-knit nature of the Spitfires has paid sporting dividends as well.

"It's always been the thing that get us over the line against a lot of other teams," Donnolley said.

"You give that bit extra because they are your mates and you don't want to let them down.

"We spent three or four hours on the bus each way, getting to know these people and then training two nights a week, they become a big part of your life.

"Letting them down on the field was never an option.

"It's the only mentality I've known because that was instilled in me from the older blokes I grew up playing with in the team."

A wonderful career blossomed from an inauspicious start.

"I don't remember much of my first game at all," Donnolley said.

"I didn't get much time, I used to run off the bench and I might have got about 10-15 minutes.

"I just remember I was useless and got yelled at a fair bit.

"Whatever I did wrong, I was made aware of pretty quick and I learned to listen to the older blokes because they knew what was going on.

"The less you get yelled at, the better you're doing."

One memory stands out above the rest.

"My favourite is always going to be when we won the State League 2 premiership in Melbourne," Donnolley smiled.

"Being a country side, the city teams never really liked playing us, they didn't think we deserved to be there so when we took that out, it was pretty good to rub it in and say 'we deserve to be here.'

"After winning that, going into the top league and getting to play against some of Australia's best players, we just tried our best to match it with them."

So how far beyond 300 can Donnolley go?

"I still love my sport but my body is telling me that I'm stupid and that I should have given up a few years ago," he said.

"But I'm there to help the team stay together and try to push it through to another year and hopefully gain some more interest from a few more people.

"We've struggled for numbers a bit this year so I've been playing games I probably shouldn't have, I've been a bit injured, but you do what you've got to do for the team to try to keep it going.

"It means too much to just let it disappear.

"We've merged our local comp with Hockey ACT now so I think there's a lot more opportunities for younger players coming through to get noticed and to move into the AHL side.

"In Victoria, it was a bit tougher for them, they didn't get noticed as much but now that we're playing at the top level in Canberra, they're getting noticed every week so it's on the radar they're going to get looked at and picked in teams.

"We've already got a couple of younger ones that are getting noticed and getting into stuff now, which is really good to see."

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