GRAND FINAL THE REWARD FOR GUADAGNIN'S PERSEVERENCE

TOUGH-as-nails West Perth midfielder Matt Guadagnin is one of a host of experienced players who has waited for years for the chance to play in a WAFL grand final that presents this Sunday at Patersons Stadium.

TOUGH-as-nails West Perth midfielder Matt Guadagnin is one of a host of experienced players who has waited for years for the chance to play in a WAFL grand final that presents this Sunday at Patersons Stadium.

Guadagnin made his league debut in the grand final year of 2002, but as a 19-year-old played just two matches and then missed all of the 2003 premiership year with a knee injury.

However, ever since Guadagnin has been a permanent fixture of the West Perth midfield playing in six finals matches before 2013 without tasting a win and it took until his 161st game with the Falcons for him to taste a win in September that came over Claremont in the second semi-final.

Guadagnin has been the heart and soul of the West Perth side for 10 years now with his unwavering dedication to train and play despite continuing to work on his farm in York, and it is this opportunity to play in a grand final that has continued to spur him on.

The 29-year-old is excited to now be preparing for Sunday's grand final against East Perth but he's sure it means more to share it with long-term teammates Jason Salecic, Ray Bartholomew, Dan Hunt, Chris Keunen, Andrew Strijk and Luke Tedesco if he's selected on return from injury.

"Your goal is obviously to qualify for the finals when you start any season and then once you get there, to qualify for the grand final and if you get there, you don’t want to bloody lose it," Guadagnin said.

"There's probably a couple of guys who have played one or two years longer than they would have if they had success earlier in their career, but the main reason why everyone is here is because we love each other and love the club. That's probably why we play so well as a team and it will be amazing now if we are able to win a grand final."

Another aspect of the club that has spurred Guadagnin on, and continues to, is the West Perth supporters and members.

They waited patiently for a decade to see their team get back into a grand final and the way they celebrated the second semi-final win at Claremont Oval showed Guadagnin just how much the team's success meant to them.

"Our supporters are fantastic. I don’t think many other people in the competition like them, but they come everywhere to watch us," he said.

"They follow us to Moora or any country game, and you can always hear them. There's a core bunch there who come to every game and you can hear them every weekend, and they love the club as much as we do. We play for them and it's just fantastic to see them enjoy our success as much as we do, and they are there step by step with us."

Only one player who took part in the second semi-final win over Claremont had played in a winning WAFL final before, and he is also the only one in the team who will play in the grand final who has played on the biggest WAFL day of the year previously also.

That is current captain Jason Salecic who played in the losing 2002 grand final against East Perth and the premiership win over Subiaco in 2003.

For 10 years now, Salecic's long-time teammates like Guadagnin, Hunt, Bartholomew, Anthony Tsalikis, Strijk, Tedesco and Keunen have desperately wanted to get back to the grand final with their inspirational skipper.

While there are other veteran Falcons like Josh Pearce, Dustin Burns and Dion Fleay who didn’t quite make it to 2013 to be there, and Tsalikis will heartbreakingly miss the clash on Sunday with injury, Guadagnin is glad to be sharing it with Salecic and the other veterans of the club.

"Jase had a chance early in his career and it was an awesome experience for him, but I know he wants to now do it with a group he has played most of his footy with and I can't wait to play a grand final with him," he said.

"We have a core group here that have played a lot of football together so to have success with them will be a massive achievement."

Guadagnin is fully aware that because West Perth is facing East Perth in Sunday's grand final that it adds extra spice for supporters and even staff at both clubs, but for the players and coaching staff they can't let it make things any different than for any other opponent.

He is looking forward to playing in front of a huge crowd, though, and continuing on the form that saw them beat Claremont in the second semi-final to earn a week off and get into the grand final.

"Obviously because it's East Perth it will be a massive crowd given it's a derby and the fans will be very excited, but I don’t think we can get much more excited than by just being in the grand final anyway," Guadagnin said.

"It's an awesome feeling to be in the grand final after getting over the line last week. We went into the game confident of getting the job done, but to actually do it and get into the grand final is a relief knowing we could spend a week getting ready while the other two teams go at it.

"We know that the job is not even half done, though, and the group is really focused on getting out onto the ground now and getting the grand final underway."

West Perth did everything tremendously in the win over Claremont to advance to the grand final aside from kicking straight on goal, but given that hasn’t been an issue all season, Guadagnin doesn’t expect it to be a problem come Sunday either.

"There's no doubt that Claremont is still an unbelievable side and we knew we had to bring our best defensive game," he said.

"We talked about that over the last two or three weeks leading into the finals and we knew that we had to give our best defensive game for the year, and we brought that. To win was such a great feeling.

"Unfortunately we didn’t kick straight and I was one of the main culprits, but that happens sometimes. We aren’t too concerned about that.

"Our main focus was our defensive pressure and we caused so many turnovers that created so many scoring opportunities. I just think it started off on the wrong foot in the first quarter and it was one of those things that just snowballed and everyone seemed to catch the disease."

Despite the fact that he is less than a month from turning 30, Guadagnin's 2013 season has been every bit as good a season as he's had in his 161-game career with the Falcons.

He had a brilliant 2011 season where he led the Sandover Medal before breaking his leg in Round 20 and still finished runner-up in the count that year to Claremont's Luke Blackwell.

However, further complications from that injury saw him struggle at times in 2012 and then have a brief pre-season campaign heading into 2013.

He wasn’t so sure about that when he had a quiet start to the season, but his form since the first couple of rounds this year has been outstanding and he's glad he and the club decided to give him some time off last year in the pre-season now.

"I started the year really slowly in the pre-season and that was something that we talked about in the review of last season," he said.

"I started this year really slowly and I was thinking what we did might have been a mistake, but as the year's gone on I've got fitter and my body is still fresh and I'm still getting a kick. I'm obviously enjoying my footy and can't wait to get out there for the grand final."

For every good story in grand final week, there's always the heartbreaking ones and for West Perth without question that falls to 169-game, five-time leading goalkicking forward Tsalikis who injured his shoulder in Round 23 against East Fremantle and will now miss the grand final.

"It's horrible and you hear stories like that every year. I sort of know what he's going through because I thought when I broke my leg in 2011 I thought the boys were going to at least make a grand final and I was going to miss it, but I ended up making it back for the prelim that year," Guadagnin said.

"It's a horrible feeling for 'Slick' I'm sure and there might be a couple of others who miss out as well. There's not much you can say for the poor buggers, you just have to support them as much as you can."

BY CHRIS PIKE