IN THEIR WORDS – JAY VAN BERLO STATE GAME

ONE of the toughest aspects of WAFL football is juggling work and football and it is not uncommon for players to be up before dawn for work and not get home until after training finishes late that night.

It is a massive commitment but one that players will do because of our love of the game and will to get the best out of our football, and of course to pay the bills.

I am a business development geophysicist for Australia and New Zealand regions for a geoscience company called DownUnder GeoSolutions. My work often requires me to travel interstate and overseas and this obviously complicates things for football.

I am lucky in the fact that my boss and coach are both flexible and understand the demands of both football and work and so compromises are often made. However on occasion one has to give which is always unfortunate.

The best way for us as players to overcome these issues is to plan ahead, discuss with our employees and coach best solutions and work out the best way to satisfy both club and company. Luckily this season, conferences that I have had to attend overseas have fallen on bye weeks and so no games have had to be missed due to work commitments.

However, with the State game this week I wasn’t able to make myself available due to work commitments. Some of our West Perth players will get the opportunity to represent WA against South Australia on Saturday at Lathlain Park and that's always an exciting experience.

For me state footy is a tremendous honour and something I will always strive to participate in. I have been lucky enough to play for WA the last two years and we had good wins over Victoria and the NEAFL, and hopefully there is another win to come for the boys on Saturday.

This year West Perth will again be well represented by some of our boys who have been in outstanding form and Andrew Strijk, Aaron Black and Shane Nelson have been lucky enough to be selected. Certainly Chris Keunen and Laine Rasmussen can consider themselves unlucky as well.

I wish them all the best in their endeavours to knock off SA and cement our competition as the best footballing state league. It is a massive feather in the cap for the boys and I'm sure they will do us proud.