PLAYER COLUMN – NICK SUBAN ROUND 1

NOW that we are just focused on Round 1 and that it's so close, it's exciting after we did initially get so close to playing, did a whole pre-season and did a lot of work to get our fitness levels to a point where they were the same as previous years, or better.

To have had all that work taken away from us that we'd done over the pre-season back in March was pretty shattering to be honest. It was a tough time there and for me personally I know I found it tough to keep on training, and to keep up the motivation.

We've got a newborn daughter and my priorities kind of changed once we went into lockdown and I had to do the dad sort of stuff a lot more, and help out the wife as much as I could. Training took a backseat for a while there obviously because of that, but then we got word from the WAFL that we eventually would get back up and going. 

So it was exciting to get back into some training and to get that fitness back up, and we embraced being back together and the longer that's gone on, the more it has felt like business getting back to usual. We've just been trying to Round 1 now and all of a sudden now it's less than a week away, and here it is.

I guess you do have to look at the positives in everything though. I have two kids now, we have a three-year-old and the newborn so it was good during this whole time being able to spend some more time at home, and not have to go straight off to training three nights a week after work. That turned into a bit of a positive at the start of it all, but it became harder the longer it went on because you put so much work into your footy, and you put in so much time and effort. 

For the season to then not be on and to be in lockdown, it was a bit shattering, but then when we kind of got word that things would be up and going, there was that feeling of excitement and about getting back to work, and doing what we had to do to get prepared best for that Round 1 game against East Fremantle which is now happening this Saturday.

Once we knew we had a start date to aim for, it just gives you some direction and purpose to actually put some work in because you know it's actually for a reason. When were in that period of not knowing and when it really wasn’t looking great at one point with the season looking like it wouldn’t happen, that's when you think putting any work into training won't be worth it and then you think of putting the feet up, and getting ready for next year. But luckily that didn’t happen and eventually we got given the all clear that we'd be playing, it put purpose back into your week and it gave you that motivation to get back to training and best prepare for when we could all get back to the club.

It's hard to tell really how well prepared we are now for this Saturday. Going back to before it all happened, we did that whole pre-season and we'd played a couple of scratch matches between ourselves and you were kind of starting to feel pretty good. Now it's just been about training as a group, we had one match practice last week and then we played East Perth on Saturday. Personally I do feel good and ready to go, but like with any athlete, you never really know for sure until you get into the action proper. Once we are two, three or four rounds in that's when you'll know if you've done enough work or not.

And considering our last game as a team was that Grand Final last year, it's made the wait a bit of a harder one. That Grand Final really hurt a lot of the guys and as a result everyone came back for the pre-season in really good shape already, and we'd trained really well and made a lot of gains. So this break might have halted our momentum a little because we were pretty eager to get back in and make amends for that game. Once you get that close, you get a bit of a taste of what it's like and the guys got to play on Optus Stadium for the first time and played in front of a big crowd. 

So it gives you that taste of getting so close and I think guys really sat back in the off-season and probably now with the time off we've had with COVID to reassess where they're at, and built up that hunger. We all feel ready to go now and I can't wait for Saturday against East Fremantle when we can start proving people wrong who might be doubting us after last year.

To have Round 1 so close now, it's really exciting and you always want to play in front of big crowds so hopefully people are hungry for their footy back and want to come and watch some live footy. It's the day before the Western Derby so hopefully a lot of people come down to watch our game and we can get a big crowd there. 

I think it's just really exciting for everyone and hopefully people decided to come out. And for those who are there, we'll put on a good show for them.