AARON BLACK PLAYER COLUMN – ROUND 9

A WEST Perth premiership player will be writing a column for the club's website every week of the 2014 WAFL season. This week's edition is Aaron Black's latest offering.

WE ALWAYS look forward to any travel we can get together. We did it two years ago when we went over to play on the 'G which was a really good experience and it was the same again this year playing on Etihad. That was a really good experience to play under the roof.

I consider myself very lucky to now say I've played at both the 'G and Etihad. Obviously the MCG is pretty amazing and you can just imagine how it would be playing in front of 100,000 people, but I think just because of the difference of playing underneath a roof at Etihad and under lights made it my favourite out of the two. Just because it was a closed roof and it's something so different that we never get over here. I definitely enjoyed Etihad, but they were both amazing experiences.

The roof being closed doesn’t change that much about the game, but it does mean that you really should be able to back yourself to hit every target, and when kicking at goals you aren’t worrying about a big gust of wind or anything. It simplifies things a little bit, but in the end you are still out there playing football. It just has a different feeling to it playing under a roof.

We had been struggling heading into the Foxtel Cup game as well so to get a win over what we knew was a high-quality opposition was obviously a really good experience. To play against nine or 10 AFL-listed players as well and getting a victory over them was really good. Hopefully it got us back on track a little bit this year. Obviously we didn’t start too well on Sunday but we did end up getting the four points and we'll take them.

To be honest, we all wanted to get out there and have a big game in front of the national TV audience. It's a lot different playing only 20-minute quarters so sometimes you don’t get into the game as much if you are coming on and off like usual, but everyone wants to go out there and put on a bit of a show for whoever is watching. That's actually always in the back of your mind.

I got no sleep before or after the game either. The plane arrived at 10.30pm on Monday night and we didn’t get to bed until after midnight. We were then up by 7.30am for breakfast and then didn’t get to bed on Tuesday after the game until about 2.30am. We were then up and in the pool at the hotel by 4.30am so there wasn’t much sleep those two days, but we knew that we had to do everything right for the week that was coming, and prepare right and that's what we did. Everyone got in the pool to do the recovery that was necessary, and we got the four points coming back.

It gave us a bit of an insight into what it's like to travel to play AFL football. That was a good experience to try and get yourself right to come back and play on the Sunday with extra rubs, ice baths and all those sort of things. That really added to the experience. We were actually very thankful that we got a five-day break by playing Peel on the Sunday. That helped a few extra guys get up who might not have if we played on Saturday.

We always thought we were still a chance. We've been involved in comebacks before like that both with us coming back and having teams come back against us. We knew it was possible and we knew playing a side like Peel who hadn’t won a game they might either be too confident or not be confident enough with their lead. We really just took the game on and went out and played football with nothing on our minds in the second half. The only way we were going to win is if we played without thinking, and did what comes instinctively. Although we were still 30 points down at three quarter-time, we still thought that we were a chance to win the game and Anthony Tsalikis did a great job kicking that goal from the pocket.

What Bill said after the game about his natural hook helped him with that shot, and I was praying a little bit I have to be honest. I did think he would kick it, though, and thankfully he did. Obviously we loved him for kicking that goal and we understand the things that he's been through over the past year and-a-half, and in the end a lot of us really want to get back to where we were last year and do it with him because he missed out. He deserved a moment like kicking the winning goal more than anything.

Early on in the year we lost a couple of close games like that and the East Fremantle one in Round 1 was a prime example that we lost by three points. So it's good that we found a way to win twice in that five-day period and that definitely gives the group a lot of confidence coming into this week against Subiaco who are very good opposition, and playing very good football.

I have seen a bit of Subiaco this year so far and they have been very good. They have obviously proven themselves to be a good team with a 6-1 record and you can't be 6-1 without playing good football. They have some very good attacking players and some good midfielders as well so we will look to slow them down a little bit this week, and put the clamps down on them and defend well to stop them from scoring.

BY AARON BLACK