The incredible career and longevity of Julie Fitzgerald can be measured by the size of her growing family.
When she began her national netball league coaching career in the late 1990s, Fitzgerald was a single mum to four primary-school aged children.
Fast forward 27 years and when the five-time premiership coach and Giants mentor achieves her 400th game on Saturday she will have her now adult children in the crowd at Ken Rosewall Arena and her smallest but biggest fans, eight grandchildren under the age of 10.
The newest addition, baby No,9, is due within days of its grandmother's history-making milestone.
Family has been as important to Fitzgerald's career as the wins and the titles, the development of countless players and the many, many game plans.
"While the kids were growing up, I was always involved in netball and then in 1997 it took much more of a professional turn and demanded a lot more of our time. 1997 was a big turning point and at that stage the kids were in primary school or early high school and it was a very, very busy time," Fitzgerald tells ESPN.
"Half the time you thought you were probably doing the wrong thing and I think most women involved in any sort of career feel a level of guilt. I was a single mum and I had wonderful friends and my mother was an enormous support to me through those years, I would never have been able to do it without them.
"I've always been grateful to my four kids (Katie, Christie, Vicki and John) because they've always been there, they've always been in the crowd, they've always been supportive and ridden the highs and lows with me and now the grandkids are doing the same.
"It's really special."
After taking a traditional pathway in NSW and leading Sydney Ku-ring-gai/Cenovis in the country's first instalment of a national league, Fitzgerald was appointed the inaugural Swifts coach in the new, elite competition.
She was at the helm of the club, through both its Sydney and NSW eras, for 235 games over 15 years for five titles in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Three Netball Australia Coach of the Year awards recognised Fitzgerald's status as the best in her business.
Her talent-laden teams featured the likes of domestic and Diamonds greats Liz Ellis, Catherine Cox, Mo'onia Gerrard and Kim Green.
"They were great days and they were great days not only because we were winning but because we had some really incredible people in that team and they've grown up to be incredible adults and parents and all of those things," Fitzgerald says of her time at the Swifts.
"We were blessed with the calibre of player off-court that we had in those teams."
Fitzgerald next had a stint as head coach of the netball program at the Australian Institute of Sport where she honed the skills of and developed the next generation of stars.
A return to the senior level took Fitzgerald to New Zealand in 2014 where she had the reins of the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic for three seasons.
Happy and settled across the ditch, Fitzgerald couldn't have anticipated the phone call she'd receive in 2016 ahead of the new Super Netball competition and the return of a second team in Sydney.
"For me, it was a dream come true. I was very happy in New Zealand but the opportunity to come back to Sydney and coach a team and live at home again and all of those things was just too good to pass up," she says.
"The building of the Giants from the bottom up was just such an experience and something I'll always be grateful that I had the opportunity to do."
Now in her eighth season, Fitzgerald has coached the Giants in 118 games and taken the club to four finals series and two Grand Final appearances.
She has always tried to navigate the highs and lows of professional sport with a level head and that ethos remains in 2024 in a season where there's been more troughs than peaks for the Giants who have won just three games.
"I think you just have to accept yes, you'll have good times but you're going to have not-so-good times as well," Fitzgerald says.
"This year is one of those years where we've had no-so-good times but I've got so much strength out of the fact the girls have been so good, they've worked so hard, they've backed each other, there's never been a bad word said, there's never been any criticism of anyone else.
"They have been amazing the way they've stuck together and tried to improve in every game that we've played. They are as disappointed as I am but we've stuck together."
Her passion for developing young talent was as evident as it's ever been in game 399 last round when 20-year-old defenders Charli Fidler and Erin O'Brien earned their debut and first start respectively.
"I get a great deal of joy from it," Fitzgerald explains.
"You look at players like Tilly (McDonnell) and Matisse (Letherbarrow) and particularly Amy Sligar, they were in Charli and Erin's shoes a year or two ago and they've come on so much and I think that's the really rewarding part of it.
"And then you have players like Jo Harten and Jamie-Lee Price who are just so keen to learn more every day.
"That's where the pleasure lies."
So, what is it that has kept Fitzgerald coaching at the elite level for so long?
"I love it," she says.
"I love seeing people develop, I love watching the girls grow up not only as netball players but as people. I love when you get a young star in because they improve so quickly, I love the competition, I love game day.
"I love all of those things."
All those who love Fitzgerald will be on hand, both on and off the court, as she further etches herself into the history books when she leads her team into battle against the Adelaide Thunderbirds, confirming her status as a giant of the sport.