Match-winner all part of career-best Zac Strom form

QUIETLY Zac Strom has turned himself into one of South Fremantle's most important and versatile players, and now as he nears becoming a 100-game WAFL player he can add match-winner to his resume after Saturday's win against East Perth.

Because of his unobtrusive and soften spoken nature, Strom had quietly gone about building a 92-game WAFL career now with South Fremantle that began with a debut in Round 16, 2013.

Along the way ever since, Strom has seen his time split between being a lockdown key defender, a centre half-back or a hard-leading centre half-forward along with being a more than handy backup ruckman with his size and mobility.

Strom has been a key part of the South Fremantle team that has played in the last three preliminary finals but his form so far in 2019 is likely the best in his career as he approaches 100 games and is splitting his time between helping Mason Shaw up forward and backing up Brock Higgins in the ruck.

Then on Saturday afternoon at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, Strom turned hero with South Fremantle down five points and time running out against East Perth.

But a rushed kick forward from Higgins ended up finding Strom who took the strong mark and went back to kick the goal to put the Bulldogs in front by a point and then the siren sounded once the ball got back to the middle and was bounced.

It caps off a tremendous start to the season for Strom in a South Fremantle team that has now won five straight matches to sit in second position on the ladder with a 6-1 record heading into the WA Day Foundation Derby with East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval.

Making Strom's big moment all the better story was the fact that he wasn’t even meant to be in the forward-line at the time and certainly Higgins didn’t have the great masterplan of finding Strom with his kick.

But that all makes for a better tale for Strom to now share.

"I think Brock thought he was probably having a shot on goal so I was pretty lucky it ended up landing in my lap," Strom said on 91.3 SportFM. 

"I wasn't actually meant to be in the forward-line at the time but Nick Suban told me to push forward and sit in the goal square so I did.

"Then the ball just appeared at the right spot at the right time, and luckily enough there weren’t that many other people in that spot and I just got lucky there I suppose."

In the end though, Strom was just happy and relieved that South Fremantle was able to get over a plucky East Perth team who just wouldn’t go away for the Bulldogs to keep their good form and winning streak going.

"Full credit to East Perth, I thought they played well and took their chances. We just couldn’t stop them," he said.

"We don’t really want a team to kick that many goals against us, but I suppose it made for entertaining footy. The last few minutes were pretty exciting on the field. It sort of felt like it was slipping away from us, but lucky enough we were able to keep grinding away and get the win."

Given he has spent his career so far playing at both ends of the ground in different roles and also significant time in the middle as a ruckman, Strom is happy with his role at the moment in attack for the Bulldogs while helping out the dominant Higgins for small stints throughout the day.

"I'm really enjoying it up forward with the forward-line boys we have at the moment. I always especially like it when I can help other people get goals and help set them up," Strom said.

"I try to play second fiddle to Mason and watch him kick bags of goals every week. It's a little bit less stressful in the forward-line than the back-line so I do like it up forward."

Strom had always dreamed of playing in the WAFL alongside younger brother Noah as well, but as fate would have it was Zac being unavailable in the early part of 2018 that led to Noah getting his chance to debut.

At that time, Zac was playing in the back-line and Noah came in to fill that spot as a key defender and he's never looked back. He ended up playing every game of 2018 and now every game so far as 2019 where he continues to grow into one of the best backmen in the WAFL.

That in turn has freed Zac up to play forward more and he couldn’t be happier to see how far his younger brother has come given he had to serve a long apprenticeship in the reserves just to receive that league opportunity.

"He looks like a 90-game player as well like myself out there and probably even better I'd say. I'm really happy to be playing in the same team as my brother. He has worked incredibly hard and put on weight to do everything he could to get this chance," he said.

"Against Subiaco last week, he even topped our distance run in the game as well so he works really hard. I'm really happy to watch him take marks down in the back-line there. He has come on in leaps and bounds."

Strom has now turned his attention to the WA Day Foundation Derby on Monday against East Fremantle and he and the Bulldogs won't be taking them lightly despite having won eight straight derbies and having also been victorious on their last 10 visits to East Fremantle Oval.

"We definitely won't be taking them lightly. We'll try and continue to play our way with our brand," Strom said. 

"Derbies are always something that I look forward to and love playing in. Hopefully there's lots of supporters out there to come down this Monday and it should be a good game to watch."