Googs' Gabble – Adam Guglielmana column August 16

IN JANUARY 2006, after finishing 12 years of schooling and the obligatory celebrations that follow, I found myself at my first day of pre-season for the South Fremantle Football Club. Seven and a bit years later I’ve been asked to share what has gone on between now and then.

The 2006 season was a bad year for the South Fremantle colts and from memory we lost something like our first 10 games.  

Personally I found the going tough moving to Perth from Carnarvon and I was a long way out of my comfort zone in all aspects of life. I was working for the first time, didn’t know many people in Perth, and had never met anybody from the football club until I moved down. I definitely did not enjoy my footy in the first half of the year and was dropped about halfway through.

Things started to change for the better after that point as I started to develop friendships with my new teammates and our football form improved as a consequence. Players like Cory Dell'Olio, Callum Wilson, Adam McIntosh and Reece Adams started playing some good football and took us to a few (though not many) wins for the year.

The next year I was lucky enough to be made captain of the colts as a top age player. We ended up losing in a preliminary final to Claremont, and for the first time in my fledgling career I’d played the majority of the season in the back-line, having played as a midfielder/forward up until that point.

In 2008 I moved back into the midfield in the reserves and was lucky enough to play three games as a small forward in the league side without contributing much, and eventually getting dropped.  

The 2009 season was much the same; I played a couple of games early on as a small forward before being dropped until the back half of the year where I snuck in as a midfielder for a game against Perth. I hadn’t been playing well but we had the game sewn up so in the last quarter John Dimmer, who was coaching at the time, asked me to tag Ross Young. 

At the end of the game John thought I had done a reasonable job restricting Ross and played me as a tagger for the next four or five games before I was dropped back to the reserves again, where I would finish off the year and be a part of a premiership.

The next year was a make or break year for me as we had lost a lot of experience after the league and reserves had both won premierships and I knew I would get a lot more opportunity. Up until that point I’d played mainly as a small forward at league level in a time when rotations were not in vogue, so I was looking forward to the prospect of more game time and time in the midfield.

Unfortunately, although getting the opportunities early in 2010 I didn’t take them, and after about four games of the season I was thrown to half-back in the last quarter in a game against Swan Districts. Luckily I managed to find a bit of the football for the first time in my career and played the next few games as a backman where I gained a lot of confidence that I could compete at WAFL level.

I was lucky enough to play every game in 2010, playing primarily as a midfielder after the first third of the year. I started to feel comfortable at league level, although I always worried on a Thursday night if I would be called into John’s room to be dropped back to the reserves.

In 2011, I played the first half of the year in the midfield and I enjoyed it a lot. Playing next to guys like Kris Miller, Ryan Cook and Ashton Hams, with Jaymie Graham in the ruck I was excited by what the near future held for the club. Unfortunately Jaymie went down with a horrific knee injury early in the year and I tore my ACL not long after.

The league side did make finals but were bundled out in the first semi-final against Subiaco.

After a long road back from a knee reconstruction I started 2012 in the reserves again before finally making it back to league level in Round 2. I had a poor year mainly playing half-forward and sometimes in the midfield and ended up dropped once again after about 15 rounds.  

Coming back from my first major injury was a lot harder than I thought. Regaining the confidence in my body was one thing but I never really regained confidence in my ability in 2012 and failed to put together many good performances.

This year I have been lucky enough to play all my games in the league side so far (touch wood) and I’ve enjoyed the challenges of playing both back and forward.

I started the year as a small forward and really enjoyed playing with guys like Gumby, Alistair Gillespie and Kingsley Smith. The pressure they put on the opposition backline is amazing and you definitely get the spoils of that at times.

Since Adam Carter’s elevation to the Eagles I’ve been lucky enough to play in one of the youngest back-lines in the WAFL and I’m really enjoying it. 

To me playing as a small forward is still the hardest position on the ground. Firstly you need the ball to come down there, then hope the tall forwards spill it, all so you can have the opportunity to try and beat a bloke that hangs off you all day.

Playing back is a lot more stressful, you have to concentrate every second of the game as those cheeky small forwards only need a small window of time to make you look stupid.

Playing league football for South Fremantle is something that I hold highly and being able to play in more than one position was definitely borne out of necessity rather than ability.

I have been dropped more times than I can remember but I may never have got the opportunities I have if I hadn’t developed some flexibility in my game.

By Adam Guglielmana