Saunders and Bulldogs aim to finish 2013 with a bang

REIGNING Bernie Naylor Medallist Ben Saunders is just starting to strike form after a horror injury run in 2013 but is focused on helping South Fremantle finish off the season strongly over the final three weeks.

Saunders kicked 66 goals in his first season with South Fremantle in 2012 after crossing from Claremont and started 2013 brightly with two goals against his former team at Claremont Oval in Round 1, but then he went down with a broken collarbone.

The 21-year-old worked hard to return in Round 9 against Peel at Fremantle Oval and while he kicked three goals and South Fremantle won its first game of the season over the Thunder, Saunders again broke the same collarbone to put him back on the sidelines.

This time it took until Round 18 against West Perth at Arena Joondalup for him to return and he again kicked three goals as South Fremantle beat the Falcons impressively by 39 points.

Saunders then kicked two in the disappointing derby loss to East Fremantle before pulling off a season-best six goals in an eight-point win over Subiaco at Leederville's Medibank Stadium ahead of last weekend's bye.

The Bulldogs now finish the season against Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium, East Perth at Fremantle Oval and Perth at Brownes Stadium.

For Saunders it's disappointing there is only three weeks to go as he's now just warming into the season, but he is hoping he can help the Bulldogs finish off what has been a tough year strongly.

"These last three games are really important for us going into next year. To get these last three under the belt would be great and we would probably take two of them, but we really want to finish well," Saunders said.

"Before that the boys will try to freshen up, but I feel like I have just come back into it and my year is going to be over in three games time. For now, I'm excited for the rest of the season and then I'll set my sights on next year."

Saunders hasn’t been allowed to ease his way back into his return either coming up against Michael Pettigrew with West Perth, Steven Dodd with East Fremantle and Darren Rumble from Subiaco as opponents the last three weeks, but he does feel his touch is now starting to return.

"They are all good players too and proven players in the competition, and pretty hard to play against especially on the way back I wouldn’t have minded an easier opponent. You get what you are given, though, and just have to make the most of it," he said.

"It definitely does take a while. Especially that first game I played coming back from injury the second time I was terrible up against West Perth. I was flying and landing, and then attempting to mark by the time the ball arrived but those are the types of things you can't train for. It's just all about getting back into it and then two or three games later you start to find some form again."

Saunders can't help but be frustrated about how his 2013 season has panned out coming off his brilliant personal 2012 year where he was the league's leading goalkicker. It made it even harder when the team was struggling, but Saunders has just tried to keep as positive as he can.

"It has been an extremely frustrating year. I'm a very active person and work full-time, and I like to dive fully into everything I do so the first time I did the injury I was out for five weeks and couldn’t do anything at all," Saunders said.

"That was real frustrating and then to watch the boys lose six games by under three goals you couldn’t help but think how much you could have helped if you were out there with the boys.

"It's really hard to watch, but it happened and you just have to suck it up and try to get back out there as quickly as you can."

As for the win over Subiaco before the bye last weekend, South Fremantle looked in control of the contest midway through the third quarter before Subiaco got some late cheap goals to be in front at three quarter-time.

That saw coach Paul Hasleby pull out one of his best sprays of the season where he pointed out the rest of the team needed to follow example set by Kris Miller and Brendan Verrier, and the whole group responded to record their fourth win of the year.

"He fairly gave it to us at three quarter-time, but he was within his right to. We were leaving it to the old boy 'Chewy' and the young kid 'Freshy' to do too much of the work in that third quarter so it was good we were able to turn that around in the last quarter," he said.

"Especially because we are such a young team it was good to finish off strongly. Last year we struggled with our last quarters and it was really nice to finish off by coming back from behind after giving up a few goals late in the third to end up coming over the top of them."

Saunders kicked six goals against Subiaco but most of them were set up from good work from his teammates especially veteran Miller who gave him several handballs over the top in the goal square.

Saunders is happy with how the forward-line is shaping up with Miller now settling there along with Paul Mugambwa, his former Claremont teammate Alistair Gillespie and Mitch Banner spending time off the half-forward flank.

"Before the game we were talking and just trying to focus on goal assists, and making sure we gave that extra handball over the top. Luckily enough this week I was able to be in the goal square to get on the end of it which was good," he said.

"I think our forward-line is very dangerous especially on paper. A few times this year from watching and the couple of games I've played I don’t think we have quite gelled enough and linked up, but it's exciting for the future.

"Millsy is unbelievable and is such a great player, and his experience just brings so much to our forward-line and then you've got Gumby as well who is a 100-game player and he's just a freak with the way that he plays."

Another South Fremantle youngster to shine against Subiaco was James Laurino who made his debut and did a good job shutting down Subiaco wingman Jarrod Kayler-Thomson.

His form is on the back of the likes Tim Kelly, Jacob Martinez and a host of other youngsters showing good signs for South Fremantle.

"He (Laurino) shut him down and played real well. That kind of stuff excites the rest of us because you don’t go through the motions, but it has been a hard year and are in a real big building phase at the moment. To have someone like Jimmy, who has been at the club for three years, to find some form and break into the ones excites all of the rest of us especially to see him to a good job," Saunders said.

"Timmy Kelly is killing it and he's only 19 years of age. We might not have him for too long, but seeing that kind of promise with guys like 'Spaniard', Jimmy Laurino and 'Freshy' it's very exciting. I still feel like I've got 10 years left in me and then they are even younger, so we could be really lethal as a team in two or three years and for a sustained period of time."

By Chris Pike