Banner showing the way in debut Bulldogs' season

WHILE Mitch Banner hopes to earn another crack at the AFL for his outstanding first season with South Fremantle, the Bulldogs' leading ball winner and goal kicker will be just as happy to stay at the port long-term if that doesn’t eventuate.

Banner spent the last four years in the AFL with Port Adelaide where he played 19 games with the Power before being delisted at the end of last year with the arrival of new coach Ken Hinkley.

However, his old school and football mate from their Western Jets days Sean Tighe was quickly on the phone to him to lure Banner to join him at the Bulldogs and now the result is that the pair are likely both in the top-three in South Fremantle's fairest and best voting so far in 2013.

Without question, Banner and Tighe have been two of the best recruits South Fremantle has added to the club for some time from interstate and for such a young team like the one the Bulldogs have, things are starting to come along as the season nears its end.

Prior to the Round 17 bye, South Fremantle put in good performances in tight losses to top-four teams Claremont and Perth, and then last weekend following the bye put in an outstanding effort to beat the second-placed West Perth by 39 points at Arena Joondalup.

That win got the Bulldogs off the bottom of the ladder and Banner is glad to now be seeing things starting to come together after such a tough first half of the season.

"It shows that if we stick to what we are doing and what Hase is doing with our pressure, that even when teams come at us we can turn it back around and then get the momentum back. That happened this week and we were able to run away with it in the end," Banner said.

"There are still five games to go and we're not going to throw it in, you want to win every game you play and it doesn’t matter where you sit on the ladder or how many games you've won. We are going to look at next year as well and we don’t want to drop away in these last five games, we want to stick with what we've been doing and try to back up this week's performance now.

"It has obviously been a tough year for the boys but I guess I've come from a club where we were losing a lot as well so it wasn’t something totally new for me. In saying that, though, the boys have played really well for three quarters in a lot of games this year and we've been in the majority of games but have fell away for one quarters.

"To put a four-quarter performance together this week is rewarding and it shows that when our pressure is good for four quarters you can see what we can do. It's just disappointing that it's taken so long to be able to do it."

Banner has now kicked 29 goals and averaged over 26 possessions a game to be leading the way in both categories with South Fremantle for 2013, and he is happy with the way he's been able to settle in to the club and the WAFL.

However, it's the defensive side of his game that Port Adelaide wanted to see improvement in and the 23-year-old feels he has got better there as well.

"Obviously it takes a while and I didn’t get over here until the start of January. You have to get to know all the boys, learn how they play and all of that stuff," Banner said.

"I think my form has been coming together and obviously it's great to get the ball and kick goals, but at the end of the day the thing I need to work on is my defensive side.

"I think there has been an improvement, but it can definitely go up to another level. On the flipside the other stuff is going pretty well and it's just a bit of gelling, and getting to know the boys a lot better and how they play."

Banner has once before had to adjust to moving from Victoria to South Australia and now from the Power and the SANFL to WA and the WAFL, so he is used to making a big move but the difference in football has been stark.

The bigger WAFL grounds and running style of play is a lot different to what Banner became used to in South Australia but he is enjoying it.

"I've done it once when I came from Melbourne over to the SANFL which was a pretty similar move when I didn’t know anyone, only at that stage I was a bit younger. It's definitely hard, though, but I have been good mates with Sean Tighe going back to our school days, then Jets days and we played and travelled everywhere together," he said.

"He was the main culprit to get me over here and I liked it when I did that. It is hard making a move like this, but the boys have welcomed me with open arms and that's all you can really ask coming from interstate, and to a foreign place that you aren’t used to. It has been good so far.

"It's a lot different. In the SANFL the ovals are a lot smaller and there's a lot more bigger bodies, and you have to play inside because the grounds are small and there's more stoppages.

"In the WAFL, the grounds are massive and if you aren’t fit you won't be able to run and get out wide, which is so important to be able to do. The runners over here are the biggest difference compared to the bigger bodies in the SANFL which I guess comes down to the size of the grounds."

Having already spent four years on an AFL list with Port Adelaide and played 19 games, Banner knows what it takes at the top level and he is hopeful that his form with South Fremantle this season will see him get another chance, but he knows that's all out of his hands.

"I'm hopeful but you just never know. I was in the system for four years and feel like I got a grasp of it, and if the opportunity comes up I will take it with open arms. That's what I aspire to," he said.

"You want to do well as a team and help them as much as you can, but at the end of the day the end goal would be to get back.

"I'm hopeful but you can't say it's going to happen because you have no idea. Fingers crossed I can keep my form up for the rest of the year and if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t I will go back to drawing board and have another crack at it."

If things don't pan out and Banner doesn’t find a place back in the AFL in 2014, then he will be more than happy to stick around with South Fremantle.

"I like it here and the boys are great. It's disappointing that we've been losing but when you see a performance like we showed like this week you know that things are on the up," Banner said.

"We have a lot of young players with a lot of guys who have only played a handful of games, and you can definitely see the improvement."

By Chris Pike