Bradley Hill wowed Freo fans with his run and carry throughout a thrilling win against Brisbane at Optus Stadium on Sunday, however the speedy midfielder thinks he may have saved his quickest sprint for after the siren.
Resting on the bench for the final moments of the game, Hill said he felt ‘nervous’ up until the ball found Michael Walters’ hands with scores tied and 27 seconds to play.
Walters’ booming kick from the 50m swung in to hit the post, but it was enough to get Freo over the line.
“I was sitting on the bench for the last few minutes so I was a little bit nervous and obviously when I saw Sonny take that mark, I backed him in to kick a point as least,” Hill said.
“If you went back and looked back at the footage, I started from the bench and I reckon I ran as fast as I did all day, all the way to ‘Sonny’.
“I put the foot down to get out there. It was an awesome win.”
Hill was one of a number of starring performers for Freo, racking up 31 disposals and 757 metres gained.
He said the efforts of Fremantle’s defenders made life easy for everyone else up the ground, praising their slick ball movements out of defence.
“We actually moved the ball a lot better than we have in previous weeks,” Hill said.
“We’ve been training on it and our backs, Luke Ryan, Nathan Wilson – just the way they took the game on out the back, it makes it easy to anticipate where the ball was going.
“I was able to get into some space which was good and, hopefully, we can build on that.”
After three frustrating losses in a row, Hill said that Fremantle almost willed themselves over the line in a see-sawing affair.
The win sees Freo finish the round in eighth place with a 5-5 record and percentage of 109.4.
“The past few weeks have been pretty tight and we hadn’t been able to get a win,” Hill said.
“We didn’t want to keep on losing, we needed to step it up and get over the line. To win like that was a little bit nerve-wracking but it was awesome and it was one we needed.”
