Looking back on his 99-game career, Howard hasn’t missed too many games through injury since his debut in 2011.

But his body has had its troubles and that's led to some interrupted pre-seasons. 

However, coming into 2017 Howard had a strong pre-season and he has no doubt that has been a significant factor in his outstanding individual form to date this season.

"I haven’t missed too many games during seasons, but it hasn’t always been a smooth ride. Coming into this year was pretty much the first time my body has allowed me to get through a full pre-season because I have had a lot of injuries and things," he said.

"I seem to have been able to get myself up during the season and not miss too many games though. It has made a massive difference to my football this year. It has seemed like in the first half of every other season I've been playing catch up on everyone else but this year I've been able to come out and reach some of my best form at the start of the year."

While Harding has used Howard as a defender right throughout his colts and league career with Swans to great effect, it's not where he actually grew up playing.

It was only in the WA State 16s that Howard found his feet as a defender and now ever since being thrown in the deep end at league level, he has been happy to accept all the biggest challenges against the WAFL's best and most dangerous forwards.

"I was always sort of a ruckman and centre half-forward through juniors but it was in State 16s when Trevor Williams was our coach and he put me to full-back. Pretty much ever since then I've been a defender," Howard said.

"I remember my first game was against East Perth and I pretty much got put on Graham Polak straight up so that was pretty interesting for me on debut. I gained a lot of experience from playing on guys like that and knowing that Stiff had the trust in me to let me have a go on him and the other big-name forwards early really helped me develop my game quickly and I was happy with that."

Howard takes great pride in the fact that he is able to match up on pretty match any type of forward in the opposition who is the most dangerous, and that his ability to stop them will always be a big factor in the final result on any given weekend.

"I always love the challenge and I'm happy to see my name on the board on a Thursday night next to the best forward on the forward. It might be someone like Liam Ryan a couple of weeks ago and then I set myself for that challenge," he said.

"It's always a different one every week and I know that if I can beat them and play pretty well myself, I've had a good day and it hopefully will help us win games.

"I am proud that I'm capable of playing on different opponents and at least I will know that there's always a spot in the side for me when I can play a number of different roles.

"There are days where I've started on bigs and a small forward has got on top of us and I've had to move onto them to try and shut them out of the game. I always look forward to that challenge."

Howard has proven himself more than capable of doing a good job on some of the big power forwards in the WAFL like a Josh Smith in the past, a hard-leading type such as Anthony Tsalikis and Ian Richardson or even livewires like Liam Ryan and Jack Bradshaw.

"I used to always love the challenge against Anthony Tsalikis who used to play for West Perth. I would play on him a lot," Howard said.

"I've played on Jack Bradshaw a few times now. On one game I got to match up on Josh Smith too and that was one of the biggest challenges of my career and I was pretty happy with the job I did that day."

Helping Howard quickly find his feet down back at league level at Swans was that he initially joined a defensive unit that included the likes of Ames, Justin Simpson, Graham Jetta, Tony Notte and more recently Kirk Ugle.

"It's great having Amesy down there with you. He chats with you the whole game and lets you know what is going on," he said.

"You often know if you are a bit down or get beaten in a contest or two that there will be guys like him or Tony Notte who will come off their man to help you out but also keep your spirits up.

"That always makes you feel better and it also helps you know that you can run off your man and take that risk at times because they will cover you. It has been a great back-line to be part of."

Simpson is someone who Howard had a particularly strong chemistry with when the pair played down back together and also shared locked next to one another.

Following Simpson's retirement at the end of last season, Howard has looked to take on that leadership void.

"With Simmo not there this year I have tried to take on a bit more leadership and to take some of the onus off Amesy and Notte," Howard said.

"I've tried to help out some of the younger guys like Jack Watson, Grescos, and guys like that. That is pretty much exactly what Simmo did for me.

"He pretty much took me under his wing and having my locker next to his meant I could have a lot of good chats with him. We would talk about the game quite a bit and he taught me heaps along the way."

Howard began his league career in 2011 as part of a team coming off the premiership in 2010 so it would have been a natural for him to expect to be part of some success himself by this point of his career.

However, it hasn't eventuated to date with only two his 99 games being finals and they happened to be first semi-finals in 2013 and 2014.

Things then took a dramatic turn downward with just two wins in 2016, but Swans are back in the finals mix in 2017 and Howard hopes some success isn’t far away.

"Hopefully some success for us isn’t too far away. We've always been a bit disappointing as soon as we've got to the finals so far in my career but talking to the boys who played in that 2010 grand final, it's a feeling you want to experience yourself in football. Hopefully we can get there soon," he said.

"I joined the senior group after that premiership in the pre-season and there was still just so much hype amongst the team because of it. One of my good mates is Steve Coniglio and seeing him play in that premiership let me go along with that journey with him and that was pretty special."

After a good first four games and then one win in the last four, Swans and Howard are looking to set themselves up for a return to the finals starting Saturday against Perth.

"We've set ourselves for these next seven games. They should be a good challenge for us but we'd like to think there are at least four or five very winnable games there so hopefully we can set ourselves up to play finals in this stretch," Howard said.

"There's no reason we can't aim for that second chance in the finals from this position and that's something we are really pushing for. Hopefully we can start to get a few boys back now as well and get some more wins on the board."