GUADAGNIN'S DEDICATION REWARDED WITH PREMIERSHIP

MATT Guadagnin has long been one of West Perth's finest servants and had to wait over a decade for his first grand final appearance, but now is a premiership player and the veteran midfielder had as big a say in the Falcons first flag since 2003 as anyone.

Guadagnin, who comes from Southern Cross and has spent most of his career still commuting from his farm in York, made his league debut with the Falcons back in 2002 and then missed most of the premiership year of 2003 through injury.

However, ever since then the tough and gutsy ball-winning midfielder has become a permanent fixture of the West Perth line-up and had to amass 161 matches before getting to play in his first grand final this year up against East Perth at Patersons Stadium.

The 29-year-old had an outstanding 2013 season with him fully mended from his badly broken leg from 2011, and then he finished off with a tremendous showing in the grand final as West Perth beat East Perth by 49 points to claim the premiership.

Guadagnin saw his teammates, including current captain Jason Salecic, win the 2003 flag and then saw them celebrate with a reunion earlier this year and he desperately wanted that for himself, and now he's got his wish.

"I think it would have been disappointing to have retired without a premiership. The 2003 boys had their reunion this year and I saw them celebrate again, and it was still like they had won it yesterday. For me to now have that bond and that to look forward to with these boys is amazing," Guadagnin said.

"It's almost a relief to actually win a premiership after all this time. We have worked so hard and every year is different, and you firstly have to try to qualify for finals and it just doesn’t happen easily. We now are always going to be premiership players and no one can ever take it away from us."

Having waited so long to find out what winning a premiership felt like, Guadagnin was just soaking it all in after the win but the time late in the last quarter when the Falcons had the win sewn up is something he will never forget.

"Those last 10 minutes I was just running around like a headless chook. I was just waiting for the siren to go but at the same time I could have stayed out there forever playing out those last few minutes knowing that we were now premiership players," Guadagnin said.

"We did think we could finish off well. We have been finishing games off strong all year and we thought our pressure was outstanding through the whole game and we didn’t miss goals like we did in the second semi, but I thought we deserved to be a little further in front.

"We thought if we could just keep doing what we were doing that we might be able to crack them eventually, and lucky enough we did and then the last 10 minutes were probably junk time when it blew out a bit."

Seeing just how much winning a premiership meant to everyone associated with the club from players, coaches, trainers, support staff and supporters didn’t surprise Guadagnin one bit, but the fact that he will now forever be remembered as a premiership player is something that means the world to him.

"It has been 10 years and I know how passionate everyone around the club is. You see how much it means to everyone, including the past players, and now to be in that group of players who has won a premiership is a special feeling. You will always be part of that now and it's just amazing," he said.

"Bill said to us behind closed doors that every time we are announced anywhere we go now, it will be as premiership players and no one can ever take that away from us.

"It's what you work so hard for and some of us have been working at it for two or three years, and some like me and a few others a bit longer. It's just an amazing feeling, I don’t know how else to describe it."

Guadagnin might be as always modest about his own performance in the grand final, but he finished with 24 possessions and a massive 12 clearances as he flourished in the tough and contested nature of the contested in the often wet conditions.

"I don’t know that I played that well, I did a fair bit of grunt work and let the other boys get a lot of the touches," he said.

"Everyone had to play their part for us to win and of course you don’t want to play poorly in a grand final, but really I don’t think I would care that much how I went as long as I won the premiership."

Guadagnin is already looking forward to 2014 as well and adding to his 162 matches with the West Perth Football Club.

"I haven’t ever said I would retire and I'm pretty confident that I will play again," Guadagnin said.

"I've always said throughout the year that I will play on for at least another year, and that's still the plan at this stage anyway."

BY CHRIS PIKE