BLACK CONTINUES EMERGENCE ON THE WING

AARON Black's continued emergence as one of the brightest WAFL stars continued when he played a key role for Western Australia against Victoria as the wingman now gears up to help West Perth continue its winning ways.

The 20-year-old has had an outstanding 2013 season to date for West Perth largely playing on the wing averaging 26.3 possessions a game and his form was rewarded by being selected to represent WA in the State clash with Victoria in Northam.

Not only did Black play, but he starred finishing with 21 possessions and two goals while spending most of the afternoon on the wing as the Black Swans ran over the top of the VFL and won by 17 points.

Black was confident that the WA side could overrun the visitors and in the end it was without doubt one of the highlights of his blossoming football career.

"It's one of the best games that I've been part of and best things that I've achieved so far in my career. I'm really excited to be part of it," Black said.

"There definitely was a good feel about the group this year and we thought we had a team that we could beat them with. We knew that even if we were down, if we came out and kept running and stayed fairly close, that we would run over them in the end."

Black started the State game in the best possible way when he kicked the first goal after just over a minute with a terrific long shot from just outside-50.

That helped him relax and settle into the contest, but really he was already calm going into the game and was glad that the WA coaching staff had the faith in him to play him on a wing and do a similar job to what he has become accustomed to doing at West Perth.

"It was a great way to start and it was really exciting to get a kick in that area. I knew I could go back and kick it with the wind so it was a really pleasing start. It got my confidence going as well early on in a game like that," he said.

"I think I was reasonably relaxed actually coming into the game. That's how I usually prepare for games is to stay relaxed so I can enjoy it. I tried to take everything in and then once the game started I knew that I had business to do, and it felt the same as a normal game really.

"I was really pleased to play the same role that I have been playing at West Perth. I knew that I could go out and have an impact in the game so it was really pleasing that the coaching staff had the confidence in me that I could go and do that."

Black certainly did notice that the game was a step up in intensity and pressure from a normal WAFL contest, but he was always confident that the WA team would have the fitness to overrun the Victorians and that's exactly how it panned out.

"I thought in the first half of each quarter we were really good with our pressure skills up," he said.

"We knew if we pressured them and turned the ball over that we could get them on the counterattack, and we stayed close enough in the second half where we knew that we could run over them in the last quarter. I think everything went to plan.

"That Victorian team was definitely really good inside and in-close at the contest like everyone said they would be. We knew we had a challenge coming into the game that we at least had to halve them at the stoppages so that was probably their biggest strength."

Black was glad to share the State game experience with West Perth teammates Jay van Berlo and Andrew Strijk, and now the trio have turned their focus back to the Falcons and Saturday's clash with Perth at Arena Joondalup after having last weekend to freshen up.

"It's great to have those guys who you play with back at West Perth to share something special with," Black said.

"Especially after not beating Victoria 22 years so to share it with VB and Strijky made it all the sweeter I suppose. It was a good week off with a light week on the track and now hopefully we can come into the Perth game ready to go by then after two weeks off."

BY CHRIS PIKE