Red and WHITE – Craig White Column Round 5

AT THE start of the year, like the last six or seven years have been, I trained with the defenders and didn’t really have any indication that I would be moving forward at any stage this season. 

It actually has been a bit refreshing the last couple of weeks and it's something I have definitely enjoyed. As far as I know, it's not something that has been in the planning though.

As a junior I played in the forward-line a lot. I came through school footy, country footy and then the colts playing as a half-forward or a deep forward, and then my first 60 games of my league career was as a half-forward or forward pocket. When we were in a good side it was easy to play that role, but then the good youngsters like Cory Dell'Olio, Brandon Matera and Leroy Jetta started to come through, and all of a sudden keeping a spot in the forward-line got a bit tougher.

As a result, myself and both Hams boys ended up being pushed to the back-line. Our coach John Dimmer came to us around the mid-part of 2007 when we had a couple of good young forwards, and we were a bit light on for small defenders. As it worked out, the three of us went back and we all ended up playing a lot of footy together at the same end of the ground in our careers.

I had probably resigned myself to the fact that I would be a defender for the rest of my career. When Hase approached me about it a couple of weeks ago, I did need a couple of days to get my head around having not played there since 2007, but the more I thought about it the more I was looking forward to it. It's something I have enjoyed the last two weeks and it's good fun mixing it with the forwards.

My role in the forward-line the last two weeks has been to really be that lead-up type player. A bit of that comes as natural instinct from my early days, but it's also about knowing the bigger grounds and knowing where the space is. My instructions have been to lead up so I have tried to make sure I have been leading up at the footy.

I did miss a goal early against West Perth on a snap that hit the post so I was pretty frustrated after missing a couple the week before against Swans, but it was good to get on the board with a couple of easy ones, and a couple of lucky ones. I'll take that and hopefully I can keep hitting the scoreboard a couple of times a week if I stay forward.

One thing that has helped me going back to the forward-line is how much I've learned from my years as a defender. Down back, I've learned what defenders hate the most and I know what I like to defend, and what's hard to defend so I take solace in that when working out what can then work as a forward. It has definitely helped me understand what the drop-off or tight defenders do and don't like their forward opponents to do.

The other thing that has happened with me going forward has been that Ashton Hams and Adam Guglielmana have gone down back. When Hase said that Hamsy and Googs would go back I mentioned I would like to play there with them because of how good they use the footy and have good footy brains, but someone had to take their place up forward. It has seemed to work out the best for the team that I'm getting some kicks forward, and both of them are playing good footy in the back-line.

As a defender, your mistakes generally end up as goals for the opposition but as a forward you have a bit more leeway with your mistakes not necessarily directly ending up as goals. As a forward, you have the pressure on you to try to turn the opposition's footy over and lock it in, so it's a bit of a different mindset but at the end of the day it's all pretty relevant with regards to how you end up scoring.

I guess I can be called a bit of a swingman now and thinking about others who have done that during my career, Andrew McCarrey was definitely one of them of the talls who has done it but I think Ashton Hams is one who has done it a lot. He started as a forward, then won a Simpson Medal as a defender and then played at the Eagles as a forward. He is one who across my career has done it and Toby McGrath was also a midfielder come forward who then ended up as a defender late in his career. They are three who were able to do it pretty well that I've played with.

Having versatility in your side helps you not become predictable to the opposition so if you have a few strings to your bow, not only does it help you get a game every week but it keeps the opposition guessing as well. I guess now they don’t know if Hams, myself or Googsy will start forward or back so that gives us some pretty good options going forward.

Having said that, I think Hase might find it tough to get me out of the forward-line for the next few weeks at least. I am very much enjoying it, but I'm still open-minded to going back if needed and if Hase sees fit.

And as a team, hopefully we now have some momentum having won. We were in three of the four games to start the year with a chance to win, but now we can finally get the ball rolling. We have had a good record at Joondalup and we have had a good one at East Fremantle Oval as well so hopefully we can put that momentum into swing and get on the board with another win.

By Craig White