Selected with the 24th pick in the 2008 National Draft, he arrived at the club touted as a future leader after captaining Victoria Country at under 18 level.
Suban played all 22 games in 2009, but the 22-year-old admitted his career at Fremantle has stagnated since his auspicious debut season.
“I feel I haven’t improved enough as I’ve gotten older,” he said.
In what’s become a recurring theme at Freo since Ross Lyon arrived, a frank discussion with the senior coach at the end of the 2012 helped realign Suban’s goals.
“I had to do something and my fitness was something that I really needed to work on,” he said.
“The coaches and the fitness staff gave me that feedback.”
When the squad went on leave, Suban ensured that when he arrived back at the club for the start of pre-season training, he’d be ready to go.
“I had to make a point,” he said.
“It’s the first time I’ve done a program off the break and come back in really good shape.”
He has passed both eye and stopwatch tests out on the track, stripping lean and achieving personal bests in the 3km time trials.
Suban played 14 games in 2012 to take his career tally to 62 games, however, he was used as the sub in four of Freo’s last five games, including the two finals.
While he doesn’t mind playing his role for the team, Suban is determined to rise up the pecking order and remove himself from sub discussion when the match committee meets throughout 2013.
“I’d rather be the sub than not play at all, but like any player, you want to be out there most of the game and have more of an impact,” he said.
Suban knows that to achieve this goal, he must continue to improve and make the hard work he has done in the pre-season count.
“If I look too far ahead I’ll be in trouble,” he said.
“I’ll take it session by session in the pre-season and then hopefully play some good footy in the NAB Cup and see where that takes me.”
