White relishes his move to Ivanhoes

AT one stage Keelan White expected to be spending his Saturdays fishing in 2017 but a change of scenery and a Pride deal have given the 22-yearold a new lease of life.

The backrower suffered a broken leg playing for Kangaroos against Ivanhoes last year and was ready to give footy away for good until he was given the opportunity to switch to the defending premiers in the off-season.

White said it was exciting to have to earn his stripes with new teammates and have the faith of Pride coach Ty Williams to give himself another level to aim at.

“Definitely breaking my leg was in the back of my mind and to have the season off, but talking to family and stuff, I opted to give a new club a try and it’s definitely given me a lot of motivation,” he said.

“Some of these boys have watched me play over the years but it’s not until you actually play beside them until you actually gain their respect and get a feel for who’s doing what and how they’re going and I can feel a lot of new friendships coming along with the move.”

White said he was now putting his “head down, arse up” to get back to the level he was pre-injury and earn a Pride call-up. Without that carrot, he wouldn’t be tearing it up on the field as he has been to start the season.

“Honestly I probably wouldn’t have done any of the rehab properly,” he said.

“I could just see myself doing a year off, just getting the weekends off.

“When you commit to a football team or any sport, it takes a lot of time at training and games and that, so I would have been just kicking back on weekends and that. I’m into my camping and fishing and that sort of stuff.

“But I’m really feeling at home right now. “I can’t complain.” White scored a strong try in the loss to Yarrabah last weekend. Ivanhoes took on Southern Suburbs at Gordonvale last night to open Round 5 of the CDRL season.