GAZ INJURY A SETBACK

Q

In 2014 the Suns looked set to go to the finals before Gary Ablett had his shoulder injury. Did you assume the rise would be linear from that year?

A

Pretty much. That was the first time I did my PCL, not that it had anything to do with the results. Leading up to that we played Richmond in Round 1 and after that game when we won at Metricon, we had this winning feeling. We went into games knowing we would win, which was pretty cool and something I haven’t felt since. Then there was a changeover of coach and a couple of players left. If things had gone our way, a few injuries here and there, who knows, we may have made finals.

Q

Even though the team was doing well that year, you still had some teething issues off the field, didn’t you?

A

It was a bit of infrastructure but more so that fact there was 20 of us born in 1992, so 18 years old in 2011 and first year in the system. We were the largest demographic of the playing group so we had the most influence over the group. It’s like handing the reins of a law firm over to kids. You don’t have the experience so while you have talent, you can’t run the other aspects. I think that was what led to the misdemeanours off field. More recently, we would have weekends off and we would get a talking to from the senior leadership group, who were bigger in numbers, about no one stuffing up. Previously we wouldn’t have systems in place where we could talk openly about going out to have a drink.