Bewy's Banter – Shaun Bewick Column Round 4

FOR my first column on South Fremantle's website, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about how I came to South Freo from West Perth and what my journey has been like so far with one good season, and one that was ruined by injury.

Honestly for the first time since I have been playing footy as a kid, I didn’t enjoy playing football at all in 2011 in my last year at West Perth. I just didn’t want to turn up to training, I would get there at the club and see where the coach Bill was and walk the other way. Our season finished on a Sunday and then before Mad Monday, I informed the club that there was no way I was coming back. The main reason was just that it was the first time I hadn’t been happy playing footy and as much as I love the game, I wasn’t going to keep playing somewhere I wasn’t happy at.

Leaving West Perth wasn’t something I came up with overnight. I guess there was just a build up of things there and a tipping point but it was something I discussed with mum and dad, and even dad's mum who is a life member of the club as well. I discussed it with her and all of them were more than happy for me to make the move, and especially nanna actually. It was with their blessing that I decided I leave so it wasn’t an issue leaving, it was more an issue deciding where I wanted to go.

I didn’t really want to go to another WAFL club initially, my first thoughts were to go interstate. Sturt flew me over to Adelaide and I trained with them for a week, but it wasn’t until the third or fourth day that I was over there when Cory Dell'Olio called me up. He was just about the only player I knew at South Fremantle and he told me that Paul Hasleby had just been appointed coach. At that stage, I hadn’t made up my mind where I wanted to go but I figured there weren’t be too many better people to learn from than Hase with his experience in the AFL.

I came back to Perth and had a good chat to mum and dad to see what they thought, and being a recruiter dad has been in the game for a while and he agreed that South Fremantle would be a good fit for me because they needed someone who played like I do. I called up the football manager at the time, Brent Dawkins, and within a couple of weeks I was down here at Fremantle training, and have been here ever since.

I just wasn’t happy at the end at West Perth, but obviously I was hoping to move somewhere that I would get more chances in the league team and all the dots just seemed to line up for me at South Fremantle.

I had always thought that I was a wingman and South Freo needed a wingman. I only ended up missing the one game that first year in 2012 and that was only because I had got knocked out at a training session before the game. I ended up coming equal third in the best and fairest, and was fourth on a count back, but still for someone who had only played 30 league games over three years coming into 2012, to get a whole season under my belt like that did my confidence the world of good.

I did have a groin injury that I was carrying for three years and I would have had the surgery the year I left West Perth, but because I was in limbo with my future and was just coming to a new club, I didn’t want to be on the sidelines for half a season and then have to fight to earn my spot in the second half of the year. I battled through that year which turned out really well because I was able to establish myself here at the club.

At the end of 2012, we tried to avoid the surgery path but in the end I needed it and I had it in early February 2013. That was supposed to be a 20-week rehab program but on the week I was due to come back, we had ladies night at the club and I will blame Jarrod Parry and Toby Bairstow for what happened.

We were doing a dance on stage and the finishing move was them throwing me up for a back flip. They will say I didn’t land it properly, but they threw me far too high and when I landed, my knee kind of buckled underneath itself and flung me back, and hyper-extended. I also hit my head on the back wall, got knocked out and had to be carried off stage in front of 300-odd ladies.

That's how my knee injury came about and that was the 19th week of my groin rehab. That put an extra 10 weeks on to my recovery and I was only able to come back in Round 22 and play the last three rounds, and then two finals. I had missed a couple of games in my career through concussion, but that was the first time even going back to colts that I had missed any games through injury.

Watching on from the sidelines for the first 21 rounds, it was pretty tough and something I had never had to do before. I never did get used to it either and I just couldn’t wait to get back out there.

The positive out of the year was that I got to play in the reserves grand final even though it was probably the worst game I have ever played, and it just happened to be against my old club. I still got a premiership medal, though, and it made a bad year look good in the end. That's the only positive I can take from last year as well as the fact that my groins are feeling as good as they have in a long time.

Now coming into 2014, I reckon I did 98 per cent of the pre-season work. Because I was coming off groin surgery and a limited season, I was pulled out of a few minor things but I did most of the pre-season and that was first time that has happened in about five years. I was just happy to get that fitness base underneath me so I could start putting up some good results in the time trials and that helped me get me ready for this season and to be in the league team so far this year.

We haven’t won a game yet, which is disappointing, and the last couple of weeks haven’t been the best time, but we are all trying as hard as we can. I don’t think it's far away and I think all we need to do is string a couple of quarters together to get that first win on the board. Once we do that, I have no doubt we can start rolling on to something bigger and better throughout the year.

By Shaun Bewick