IF I had to rate my year, I reckon it was a positive season for me. 

I felt like I made some strides at half back and then moving into the midfield, I felt like I made some strides there as well. I feel like my relationships have gotten really strong: I’m really tight with some of the boys and the coaches.

The only opinions that really matter to me are the coaches here, the players here, the staff here and the fans here. I haven’t really got social media anymore — I don’t pay attention to it and I take it with a grain of salt, for the most part. 

However, I probably wasn’t quick enough to realise that the only opinions that matter are inside the four walls of the football club.

I don’t think I dealt with the attention particularly well at the beginning. I was reading a lot into what people were saying about me, I read far too many newspaper articles about what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. A lot of them didn’t involve me as a person but rather me as a name. 

On the season itself, I don’t know if I got everything that I wanted to achieve done: getting injured halfway through the year didn’t help that. But to experience my first five AFL games, they were really important.  

 

Those games gave me an idea of how quick AFL football is and what I needed to do to make it to the top level. I think I realised that everyone has similar skills, and it’s more about your mindset and what’s between your ears that gets you places. That experience and hunger to play more games will be front of mind for me during pre-season.

I really missed it when I was injured: it tore me apart, mainly because I was missing out on football. When I was with the VFL program, I really wanted to push hard to get back into the AFL selection frame.

I would’ve liked to play a couple of AFL games in the midfield this year, but that’s my fault — I couldn’t crack into the team but moving forward I want to earn my spot. The midfield is where I see myself going forward: I was drafted there and it’s where I see the rest of my career going. Plus, having the chance to build my career alongside guys like Sam Walsh is really exciting. 

 

Those reasons are two-fold: you get to watch these guys develop not only as footballers, but also as blokes. We’ve got a lot of emotional intelligence-building at this age — we’ll grow together. 

I really love the fact that I get to watch these superstars go out and play footy. I’m really looking forward to playing with them… I’ve always said I want to be a one-club player. My first couple of years here is about building that up. 

I’m trying to be the best person I can be at the Club: that means to the fans, to the back-room staff, coaches, players, whoever it is that’s involved with the Club. I’m putting the building blocks in place for what I’m hoping is a 10-15 year career here. It’s really important to have that loyal fanbase and I’m trying to build that as well.

Liam Stocker playing his first VFL game. (Photo: Rose Zarucky)

Just on that, I reckon I agree with ‘Crippa’ on the fans. We’ve got such a personable group of players, so I think the fans relate to us a little bit. The fans really enjoy it and are really connected when the players come around the sidelines, in those moments we can celebrate wins together as one club. 

I think it’s about to explode, if it hasn’t already. 65,000 members is pretty impressive and 75,000 is the next target — where it can go from there, who knows. 

I can’t wait to be part of it.