CHRIS KEUNEN PLAYER COLUMN – ROUND 14

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 Chris Keunen's latest offering.

IT HAS been an interesting few weeks for me. As everyone is aware, I copped a poke in my eye which resulted in a bruised retina. This meant that for two weeks I was unable to do any physical activity at all. This was a hard task since I love training and the hardest part was having to sit back and watch the team play. 

Gaudy and Razor have also missed recent games through injury and they would also attest to how it is hard to not be a part of the team. Being experienced players, we try and stay involved by taking on a coaching/mentoring role. Gaudy loves to be a part of the midfield group and sits in the coaches box with Smokes and has plenty to say to the boys during the breaks. As everyone knows, Razor loves to talk. He floats around the group talking to boys and giving his advice. For me I spend time with the mids but in particular I spent plenty of time talking to big Seva Martin.

Sev is keen to learn and seeks my opinion to help improve his footy. This makes it easy to work with him and as the year has progressed everyone has seen him improve. Since moving from Subi, Sev has worked extremely hard during pre-season and now the season so far to get to where he is. 

Seeing him play the last few games as the main ruckman and I have seen how he is developing into the role. He has showed that he has plenty of potential. We have had fun competing against each other at training as well. He is a very confident young bloke, as could be seen from his ridiculous celebrations when he kicked that goal in the last quarter on Tuesday night. I have enjoyed working with him and seeing him step up to take the No. 1 ruck role while I have been out, I just hope I haven’t helped him too much that I don’t get my spot back.

We have a good stock of young up and coming talls at the club as well. I have also worked with a bit of mentoring with Tim Sutherland. His recent form in the reserves has been pleasing to see, even getting awards for all his hard work. I look forward to seeing him press for league selection throughout the year. I will also take credit for Jordan Mills and Max Alexander’s great form at the moment. After every Thursday training session we work together on our contested marking and sledging skills. This helps me as much as them.

It was good to get back out on the field on Tuesday night in the Foxtel Cup and good to see a young team perform so well and produce a convincing win. It was great to win and progress to the grand final but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t take that confidence into the rest of the WAFL season. By having myself in the middle and having extra talls up forward as big marking options, hopefully we will create some headaches for our opposition. 

I am looking forward to getting back into WAFL footy this Sunday against South Fremantle now.

I have just bought a new pair of boots, which Sev believes are my way of standing out again since he has been so good in my absence. I need to make sure we give the team first use of the ball and create contests around the ground. This game is a must win game for us to keep our finals aspirations alive. I hope everyone gets down to support us on Sunday at Fremantle Oval.