Long road back to the top for Eagle
WHEN Jack Redden played finals for the Lions in just his ninth and 10th AFL games, he looked forward with boyish enthusiasm to regular September appearances throughout his career.
However, another 153 games would pass before he got another chance, this time for the West Coast Eagles last season.
Now, at 27, those youthful ambitions are coming true.
Tomorrow afternoon against Melbourne in front of a full house at Perth’s new Optus Stadium will be his fourth final for the Eagles and the first time he has advanced as far as a preliminary final.
And he has the support of a host of former Lions’ teammates who have sent messages of encouragement.
“I haven’t got this far before so it is all new to me,’’ he said.
“And with all the hype in WA it is very exciting.
“I loved Brisbane and I have some great friendships there and it has been great to hear from a few of the boys wishing me luck.’’
Redden and Daniel Rich were the young bucks in the 2009 Lions side, which re- tained in Simon Black, Jonathan Brown, Luke Power, Daniel Bradshaw and Ash McGrath the final components of the great premiership era, that first-year coach Michael Voss took to the second week of September.
They defeated the Blues in an elimination final thriller at the Gabba before falling to a Bulldogs outfit who were in the middle of a run of reaching three consecutive preliminary finals. Redden is now back in the promised land.