Player Column | Brock Higgins Preliminary Final

AS I sit down to write this, Sunday's preliminary final is getting closer and I think myself and the boys are ready for a big game. I'm looking forward to it and looking forward to the challenge, and to having a win at the end of the day.

We have been here before and we were in the same position last year. Last week was obviously disappointing but Claremont played very well and we played very poorly. We try to erase that now and get back to what we think works for us, or what was working earlier in the year anyway.

We just put that down to a poor game from us last week. We had been struggling a little bit for form the past month as well and we just haven’t been playing the way that we want to play, but I think we've addressed that at training this week. We had a really good session on track on Thursday night in our main session, and then again on Friday everyone was up and about, and now we all can't wait for Sunday's game. You'll see a different South Fremantle team than you did last week.

We know what it feels like to lose preliminary finals so we don't want to experience that again and it was also a different feeling last week with us being favourites. I think that might have weighed heavily on a lot of us, but this week there are no second chances and we just give it our all or we fail. I'm not one to like failing, so it will be all out from me and from everyone else on our team.

Having said all that, we know West Perth will be tough to beat. They are a good club and always have been a good club, and they are consistently at the top or near the top of the table with some good players, and then they are well drilled. They are normally well-disciplined so they are always a tough opponent to play against. There was a final a couple of years ago we had a big win against them, but aside from that they are usually close games and even that year they beat us in the prelim two weeks later. West Perth is always a tough opponent and well-respected in the competition, and they're a good team.

Honestly I try not to think about the prospect of us getting to play in a Grand Final on our home ground too, but it's hard not to at the same time. To make a Grand Final for me is something very special and I've been playing for 10 or 11 years now and have only ever made one. So if I can make another one that's all I care about, I couldn’t care if we played it anywhere at all, it wouldn’t bother me.

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But I think no matter the result on Sunday, Freo having the Grand Final for the community is a great thing. Especially after what has happened this year, I think the people of Freo will really benefit from it and it will be just an added bonus if we're in it too.

In terms of myself personally, I'm not going too bad but I am starting to feel old. It probably hasn’t been my best season but with COVID and the hammy, I haven’t really had a sustained crack at it. I've now put two games together after the hammy and I'm feeling good, the body feels good and I'll give it a real good crack on Sunday and see what happens. I haven’t been overly happy nor disappointed in my year.

I was informed as well that Sunday would be my 150th game overall that I've played at East Perth and South Fremantle, and I had no idea it was coming up until I was told but it's a funny one. Honestly it would mean nothing if we didn’t win the game and that's just the way it is. If we don’t get the victory I couldn’t care what sort of milestone it was, it would just be a crap day. But if we win, then it's another great little accomplishment to tick off personally and life membership at South Freo would be the ultimate goal, but at my age I'm not sure if that would be possible. 

It looks like it might take two more seasons for me to achieve that and I don’t know if I could manage that. I have been asked this question a fair bit lately about my future and I'm just going to wait until the end of the season, have a couple of weeks off and then just reassess. Once you hit the 30 mark, everyone thinks you are going to retire and I've seen a lot of my old East Perth mates do that recently with Stevie Payne, Freddie Clutterbuck and Shaggy, Kyle Anderson. I caught up with those boys during the week and the future was asked of me, but I'm just going to take it as it comes and at the end of the year reassess, speak to the coach and the club, and see where I'm at personally. We'll just wait and see.

Honestly I'm not sure what winning a premiership would do to my decision but I'd sure like to find out. I wouldn’t know until I win one what it feels like, but it does go through my head different scenarios. But it changes every day and really I have no idea, I'm just going to wait and see.