After a successful comeback from injury last weekend, Richard Douglas has set his sights on reaching the long-awaited 100-game milestone.

Adelaide’s first pick (No.16 overall) in the 2005 AFL Draft, Douglas established his place in the team in 2008, playing 22 matches.

The goalkicking midfielder missed only a handful of games in the next two seasons, notching up his 50^th game in round 13, 2009, and winning the Crows Club Champion award in 2010.

However, the latter stages of his journey to a century have been littered with minor, but frustrating setbacks. He missed five games with an ankle injury towards the end of last season, and another six after straining his hamstring against the Western Bulldogs in round two this year.

Douglas, who will move up to 99 games against Fremantle on Saturday afternoon, has been stuck in the 90s since the middle of last year.

“It stalled a little bit … I got a bit of the ‘nervous 90s’,” Douglas told the Down the Guts podcast.

Click the play button above to listen to Dougy and Patrick Dangerfield on this week’s podcast.

“Hopefully, I can bring it up after the bye against the Saints on the Friday night (June 15). It would be pretty special.

“You always dream about playing 100 games, so if I can get there it would certainly be nice.”

But first Douglas is looking forward to playing his first full game of the season since Adelaide’s opening-round clash with Gold Coast.

The 25-year-old started as the substitute in his return from injury against Collingwood last weekend and said he hoped to avoid the same fate against the Dockers.

“It was my first time in the dreaded green vest and it was quite tough actually,” he said.

“Mentally, it’s pretty hard to try to switch off from the game and when you do come out, to try to have an impact, but it was good just to be back in the side. I’m at a pretty good fitness level now where I think I can get back, play some good footy and try to have a strong second half to the year.

“Hopefully, this week I can be in the 21 and play more of a role.”

Douglas was one of three players to commit to the Crows this week, signing on for a further three seasons. The contract extension will see him become a 10-year player at the Club.

Have you also read 'Young defender signs on'?

One of Adelaide’s best-performed players over the pre-season, Douglas is entering the prime of his career and hopes to play an important part in the team’s vastly-improved midfield.

“There have been subtle changes to our roles under ‘Sando’, but I played a fair bit of footy in the midfield and across half-forward under ‘Craigy’, so mine is pretty similar,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of depth that can go through the midfield and I’m just one of the nine or 10 players, who can roll up through there and play forward as well.”

Under new coach Ross Lyon, Fremantle has emerged as one of the stingiest teams in the competition when it comes to opposition scores. Douglas said Freo’s defensive style of play would be a good test for the Crows, who like to play fast and attacking football.

“Freo is a tough side and really strong defensively. There’s been a lot of talk about the way they play, but we’ve seen this year they’ve been hard to beat and hard to score against,” Douglas said.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for us. If we can win on Saturday it would put us in a really good position heading into the second half of the season.”