GEELONG coach Mark Thompson says All Australian full back Matthew Scarlett has set a benchmark for defenders that few will have the ability to reach.

The 30-year-old Cat, who celebrates his 200th game on Saturday night, has been the key to a defence widely recognised as the best in the business.

Thompson was effusive in his praise of the rebounding full back.

“He’s an awesome player,” he said.

“I’ve never really seen a defender play the way he has, and he’s probably made it a little bit harder for the modern defender of the future trying to play like him.”

Scarlett averages 16 possessions a game this year, including 32 a fortnight ago against the Bulldogs.

Thompson said Scarlett’s attacking style went beyond what he thought capable for a player whose job it is to stop the opposition’s best forward.

“He’s certainly taken it as far as we could possibly have ever imagined it could have been taken,” he said.

“I would never have thought he would ever have got up to 30 possessions in a game of footy like he has at times.”

The three-time All Australian, who made his debut against Essendon – the team he supported as kid – in round 22, 1998, has missed only nine games in the past nine seasons. He has been the heartbeat of a backline that led the league last year and is doing likewise in 2008.

Thompson said marriage, and the birth of Scarlett’s second child, had matured the player some have compared to full back of the 20th century Stephen Silvagni.

Scarlett will become the 23rd Geelong player to reach 200 games.