Former Eagle Wilson finds home in kennel
Former Eagle Blayne Wilson says he has no regrets about the abrupt demise of his AFL career despite his old club’s dire need for tall defenders.
The 23-year-old, who stands at 188cm, has started life with South Fremantle in style by averaging 23 disposals and eight marks across the WAFL’s opening four rounds.
Wilson’s form as a floating defender has coincided with a bright start by the Bulldogs, who are perched on top of the ladder ahead of tomorrow’s clash against premiers Subiaco at Fremantle Oval.
The Eagles de-listed Wilson at the end of last season but have since been forced to get midfielders such as Elliot Yeo and Matt Rosa to plug holes in defence with their key back men Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown going down with season-ending knee injuries.
Wilson managed just nine matches in his four seasons on West Coast’s list after being selected with pick No.2 in the 2011 pre-season draft. He had a trial with Sydney in the countdown to last year’s rookie draft, but was not selected.
Wilson questioned whether he would have been picked this season regardless of the Eagles’ mounting injury list.
“Like everyone, you’d like to stay on a list as long as you possibly can, but I don’t really have any regrets about my time at West Coast,” he said.
“If I was still there, I’d probably just be playing WAFL footy or trying to play my best footy to put my hand up.
“I can only control what I can control. They’ve got plenty of other good young defenders there coming through.
“I had my exit meetings and I was still 50-50 at the time, so I wasn’t sure what was going on.
“I was probably left in a lurch a bit, but that’s the way it went. At the moment I’m just happy playing at South Fremantle.”
Wilson’s 65 WAFL league matches before this season had been split across AFL-aligned clubs East Perth and Peel, but family ties have proved to be the decisive factor in his future.
His father Dean Wilson played about 50 league matches for South Fremantle and that link convinced the defender to sign with the Bulldogs in Todd Curley’s first year as coach.
Wilson said his ambition was to help the Bulldogs play finals for the first time in four years and try to break into a WAFL representative side.
He wants to represent WA for the first time in the State game against South Australia at Lathlain Park on May 23.
“That’d be great if I got that opportunity,” Wilson said.
“But it’d be great just to make finals with the boys and a new group. Just to play finals with our new squad would be a great feeling.”
The Bulldogs defence has been one of the club’s strengths this season, with Wilson complemented by premiership siblings Ashton and Kyle Hams and prominent talls James Sellar and Dylan Ross.
Wilson also praised the roles of Adam McIntosh and Adam Guglielmana, who has stepped up as the team’s lock-down small defender.
South Fremantle follow tomorrow’s top-of-the-table clash with an Anzac weekend derby against East Fremantle in a fortnight.
“The next couple of weeks will determine where we sit in the competition,” Wilson said.
“Obviously we’ve had a good start to the year, but the next two games are probably a couple of our biggest games. It’ll really be a big test for our boys.”
