Jaeger O’Meara has almost lamented the timing of Walyalup’s bye in round 12, with the midfield building momentum through the past four weeks, capped off with a seven-point win against Narrm on Saturday at the MCG.
 
The Walyalup leader believes the addition of big-bodied midfielders Nat Fyfe and Matthew Johnson in recent weeks, as well as his growing familiarity with his new teammates, has contributed significantly to the team’s fortunes.
 
After defeating Hawthorn by 69 points in round eight, Walyalup have taken down 2022 grand finalists Sydney, 2022 premiers Geelong and 2021 premiers Melbourne.
 
Against Narrm, O’Meara had 24 disposals, eight contested possessions, six clearances and seven tackles.
 
In the past four weeks, he’s averaged 26 disposals, 6.5 tackles, 6.5 clearances and 11 contested possessions per game.
 
“I feel like I’m getting into a bit of a groove now, it’s actually a bit of a shame that we’ve got the bye as I would love to keep our momentum going,” O’Meara said.
 
“Early in the year, I was probably just worrying about being in the right spot and getting set up at stoppage and now I’m playing with more freedom and understanding how my teammates play.
 
“I’ve had a decent month but hopefully I can keep it going after the bye.”

O’Meara said Fyfe and Johnson both allow young Freo stars Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong to dominate in the middle.
 
“We love having (Fyfe) and Matty Johnson, two bigger bodies in there who are creating a really good contest,” O’Meara said.
 
“If they don’t win the ball, they’re bringing it to ground as well, which is really good by them.
 
“They’re two beasts and Caleb and Andy are having really good years too.”
 
Speaking post-game to 3AW, Serong said Fyfe’s consistency and predictability made him a great teammate in the engine room.
 
“When you want to lock a stoppage down or get back to the basics, you can just put him in the spot and hit it to him, you know he’s either going to take it or he’s going to get to ground and be predictable,” Serong said.
 
“That’s something that helps our predictability around stoppage.
 
“I feel like guys like Jaeger and Johnno as well, they’re big bodies and they’ve been getting to work over the past month and have produced a good contest for us.”

O’Meara said Walyalup’s win against Narrm was different to their previous victories in 2023 due to how tough it was against the Demons in the contest.
 
“It feels a lot different, it was just a grind all day, we came in at half time and we realised there were a lot of contest to contest stuff and there was nothing really pretty about the game, it was just a scrap the whole time,” O’Meara said.
 
“We knew if we could compete with them in the contest and get the ball forward, we’d give ourselves a chance and we were able to do that in the second half.”

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