SALECIC READY TO LEAD FALCONS IN GRAND FINAL 10 YEARS ON

JASON Salecic was just a teenager when he became a premiership player with West Perth in 2003 but now he remains the only Falcon to have played in a grand final as he leads the club into the 2013 decider.

Salecic was just 19 when West Perth beat Subiaco in the 2003 grand final with players like Kim Rigoll, Callum Chambers, Simon Duckworth, Glen Britten, Brendon Fewster, Steve Trewhella, Brendon Logan and Brett Cousins who he looked up to and were nearing the end of their careers.

Now 10 years later and it is Salecic who is the captain of the West Perth Football Club, is a premiership player and a great of the Falcons having now played 211 games, seven times for WA and having won a Breckler Medal.

Despite Matt Guadagnin having played 161 WAFL games, Ray Bartholomew 152, Dan Hunt 150, Andrew Strijk 132, Chris Keunen 129, Jordan Jones 83, Jay van Berlo 78, Steven Browne 70, Mark Hutchings 69 and Aaron Black 62, none have played in a grand final before.

In fact, prior to Sunday's second semi-final win over Claremont at Claremont Oval, West Perth had not played in a winning final since the 2003 grand final so it was a first for all of those with the Falcons aside from Salecic to take part in a winning finals team in league football.

Salecic has been an inspirational captain with West Perth since 2008 and while he's not the most outspoken player to lead a club, he leads by example and that's what he aims to do heading into the grand final.

"It's just what comes with footy I suppose. If you hang around long enough you become the aging man and the guy the younger players look to for some leadership," Salecic said.

"Whether they look up to me or not doesn’t matter, what I do is do everything I can to encourage them to do the right things and hopefully lead by example."

Salecic certainly hasn’t forgotten the 2003 premiership but feels that if this year's grand final turns out victorious it could be even more special considering it has taken 10 years to get back there, and because he will be getting there with a group of players he has spent years playing alongside.

"I don’t think you ever forget those moments. I absolutely remember it. I was a bit younger and I came up and played with a lot of older guys who I didn’t end up playing a lot of footy with, but they are all great mates now and greats of the club," Salecic said.

"It probably is a little bit more special now to be in a grand final with a lot of these guys in this current team who I've played the majority of my career with. We will now be doing everything we can to make some more memories.

"I'm fairly lucky that I was around at that time in 2003 and got the opportunity to play in that game, and these guys have now been around for such a long time and that is one thing that when you finish your career you want your best mates to feel what you felt. Hopefully now if we do everything right in the grand final that becomes a reality."

Despite the fact that West Perth hadn’t won a final since 2003 and had lost all six finals it participated in, the culture of the club and closeness of the playing group was enough reason for the experienced players like Salecic, Guadagnin and Hunt to continue to play on.

"I don’t think you stick around just to win a premiership, the love of the club is a big part of it as well," he said.

"Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but the guys who have played a lot of footy here it's because they love the place and love playing with each other.

"We are good mates away from the club as well, and that includes the younger blokes. We are a close group and we pride ourselves on that within our football club."

Salecic has been one of the very best and most consistent WAFL players over the last decade with his leadership, ball winning ability, hardness at the contest and outstanding finishing making him a cut above most.

He had never played less than 18 games in a season between 2004 and 2012, but this year has been tough with an on-going hamstring injury meaning he missed half the season.

The 29-year-old has been trying to play catch up since, but has put together seven straight games now to be feeling good heading into the grand final.

"I've been putting in a lot of work into my preparation after missing 12 weeks of the season, and 10 games," he said.

"I was always playing catch up because of that, but I put in a fair effort over the pre-season which held me in good stead. I felt good out there this week and hopefully I've got another game left in me."

West Perth admittedly has changed its game plan significantly in 2013 and that led to a 13-7 record in the home and away season to finish second on the ladder to book in a second semi-final clash with Claremont.

Despite Claremont going in as warm favourites having never lost a final at Claremont Oval and having won the previous three second semis to go straight into the grand final, but West Perth was the better side all afternoon with its huge pressure and intensity a standout.

However, the Falcons couldn’t finish in front of goal and kicked 11.21 for the day, but that ended up being four points good enough to secure the memorable win at Tigerland.

"We have worked on a lot of things throughout the year to get our structures right, and the boys stuck to that all day. Communication is the most important thing to get everything right to make sure we are in a position to win games, and that worked well out there," he said.

"All day we felt like we were playing pretty well, but we missed a lot of opportunities and that made it a bit harder for ourselves. We have taken confidence now that we can match it with the better sides and whoever we play in the grand final we know we have to bring that game, and if we do that anything is a chance of happening.

"We know that Claremont are a good side but we came in pretty confident even though we had lost our last two games. We felt that we had the preparation necessary to play well and give us a chance to play in the grand final, and that's what happened.

"Getting into the grand final is one thing and it's a good feeling to get there, but we know we have to win it now and that's an even better feeling. We just have to do the right things over the next couple of weeks and take it from there."

Salecic certainly noticed the West Perth faithful who was out in full force making up the majority of the almost 3000 crowd at Claremont Oval in the second semi-final.

"Everyone gets excited and around finals time in footy it's when everyone enjoys it. It was great to see so many of our supporters there and get behind us, and you could really hear them when we ran out and throughout the game," he said.

"They were up and about and enjoyed the win afterwards. Their support gives us that little bit extra, but we have that belief inside ourselves that even if we had no support, which won't happen because of the tradition of our football, we will go out there and give it everything we can."

Like in any grand final side, there will be selection dilemmas and heartbreak. The toughest of all this year for West Perth will be the absence of five-time leading goalkicker and 169-game veteran Anthony Tsalikis after requiring a shoulder reconstruction after going down in Round 23.

If experienced defenders Michael Pettigrew and Luke Tedesco also prove their fitness two players from the second semi-final winning team could end up incredibly unlucky to miss out on the grand final.

"It's really unfortunate for someone like 'Slick' who will miss out because he's had to have an operation and I really feel for guys like him who have worked so hard, and been around for such a long time only for an injury to come along meaning he misses out on something like this," Salecic said.

"Obviously Pettigrew and Tedesco will be doing everything they can to get back into the side as well so that will make it an interesting build-up."

BY CHRIS PIKE