Adam Simpson's decision to retire this weekend, a month before the season officially ends for North Melbourne, sums up how unobtrusively he has gone about a career that stretches back 15 years.
But the 33-year-old, who is the last surviving member of the club's third premiership team from 1996 and will leave current captain Brent Harvey as the only remaining member of the 1999 flag-winning side, will go down as one of the club's greats.
Simpson debuted with four kicks and five handballs in Round 18 of the 1995 season against West Coast at Princes Park but was dropped after managing just one kick and one handpass a week later against Richmond.
But that was to be the only time in his career that form cost him his place in the team, Simpson playing every game the following year as the Kangaroos ended a 19-year drought by beating the Swans to claim their third flag.
He may not have been a key contributor along the way to that triumph but there was no doubting how important he'd become to the side three years later as he and his team-mates delivered the club's fourth premiership.
And while further team success has eluded North in the decade since - apart from finals appearances in 2002, '05, '07 and '08 that included just one win from six attempts - Simpson has well and truly stamped himself on the Roos' history during the period.
In a time when North well and truly punched above its weight in terms of getting to those finals series despite having facilities among the worst in the league and a playing list that was rated at about the same level, Simpson stood tall.
Anthony Stevens took over as leader for the two seasons that followed Wayne Carey's departure in disgrace on the eve of the 2002 campaign but by then was nearing the end of his career and wisely handed over the reins to Simpson in his final year in 2004.
Having also lost two-time premiership coach Denis Pagan to Carlton at the end of 2002 largely because of the club's parlous financial state, Simpson's early years in the job coincided with one of the darkest periods off the field because of that lack of money.
But regardless of what was going on behind the scenes, he continued to lead from the front and current president James Brayshaw was quick to lavish praise on him when he announced