IT’S not much fun sitting on the sidelines watching the footy at any time, but especially at the start of the year when there is so much excitement around the place.
At the Eagles, with such an influx of terrific young talent, it would be great to be a part of that, but from my perspective it’s not far away.
I’m hoping I will be ready to go this week against the Gold Coast Suns at Optus Stadium.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWObviously I’ve trained at the new stadium and I’m really looking forward to playing there. It creates a great atmosphere and it already feels like home.
While I have been working my way back to fitness I’ve been really excited to see some of the young blokes like Liam Ryan, Willie Rioli, Jake Waterman and Daniel Venables get their opportunity. I’m really looking forward to playing with those guys.
When ‘Flyin’ Ryan’ goes near the ball you can sense it in the crowd; they’re just waiting for him to launch himself into the air to take a specie and we have seen a couple of amazing grabs.
Willie does most of his magic at ground level, has some great tricks and sees the game really early. They give us a little bit of the X-factor and our fans have quickly embraced them.
The injection of some new faces has helped to create a new era for the club and it will be good to be a part in the next week or two. It has been frustrating to be on the sidelines for the first three weeks, but you just have to do the work to make sure you’re ready to play at the elite level.
This week it will be an interesting game against the Suns who will have spent 10 days here by the time it is played on Saturday night.
Because of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, they haven’t had access to their home ground so they ‘sold’ a home game to play Fremantle at Optus Stadium last week and then backed up for one against us.
This will be the first night game for our club and I’m looking forward to seeing how that comes together. The club has tried a few different things with the first couple of games at Optus Stadium and I reckon they might have a few tricks up their sleeve this week.
MORE: Perth Children’s Hospital set for May 14 opening
MORE: WA Police charge four people following shooting at shopping centre
