Player Column – Cory Dell'Olio Round 3

I HAVE to admit a big reason I was determined to return with South Fremantle this year was to play on with Adam Guglielmana. He is one of my best mates and I was looking forward to that, but unfortunately he has decided to retire and he definitely deserves some recognition.

I really wanted to come back to finish off my career with SFFC as I have some good friends at the club and the place means a lot to me. I was super excited to play with one of my best mates this year in Googs but he unfortunately retired just before pre-season. Now I have to hang out with Brock Higgins and that’s not ideal. 

On the topic, not much has been said about Adam’s retirement and I think that’s the way he would like it but he deserves a lot of credit for a great career he had. He put everything into his time here at SFFC both on and off the field and is a great role model for a lot of young guys coming up through the ranks. On another positive for Adam he has really taken a liking to the retirement life and his bench press has gone down from a max of 35kg to a stunning 20kg but he's happy and that’s the main thing. 

It's unfortunate he wasn’t there with me, but it was quite a surreal feeling to be back playing footy against after a challenging 12 months. To have a win against a quality opposition made it a day to remember in our Round 1 game against Subi.

Even though it was disappointing to lose to Swans last week, I am feeling much better this week than in the previous couple weeks post game which is a positive sign I am getting used to the work load of being back playing. I haven’t been in the best form since the start of the season so that has been challenging but will continue to work hard and hopefully some form isn’t too far away. 

Personally for me I think the hardest part has been my decision-making with and also without the ball which has led to the main reason with me struggling early in the season. Also there seems to be a lot of young and quick kids out there playing these days and I am neither of those so that doesn’t make it easy either. 

Peel have started the season really impressively this year after obviously finishing off last year so well with winning the GF. After a disappointing lost for us last week I think playing a strong opposition is exactly what we need. It will be a huge challenge but if we can bring our best footy it will be a really good game and hopefully we can get on the winning end of.  

Leroy is back with them as well after missing last year for the same reasons I did and that's great to see. I did text Leroy after his first game saying well done. It’s been really good to see him playing good footy from the start of the season, he is one of the more talented players I have played with and it’s no surprise his doing well.