Fremantle midfielder Paul Hasleby says he’s enjoying playing and training with his teammates again after shrugging off the injury concerns that dogged his 2006 season.

Hasleby was restricted to 16 games last year and missed Fremantle’s finals matches against Melbourne and Sydney after opting to have surgery on his groin prior to the end of the season.

The move paying dividends as Hasleby, with the help of the club’s medical and fitness team, enjoyed an uninterrupted pre-season and took his place for last Sunday’s 37-point win against West Coast at Subiaco Oval.

“It’s been a very exciting week for me – I played a game, and for the first time in a while I felt pretty good the next morning, and training this week has been really good,” Hasleby said.

“It’s just great to be out there and mixing it with the boys again, having some fun, doing the training with them, and I’m really enjoying my football at the moment.”

Hasleby says the pain of missing out on Fremantle’s first finals win is acting as a personal driving force for 2007.

“Being here for seven years and watching the guys playing some pretty big finals games, it was pretty heartbreaking to miss,” he said.

After starting with a win in the opening round of the NAB Cup, attention now turns to a meeting with the Kangaroos this Sunday at Telstra Dome. The home side also comes into the game with a degree of confidence after an impressive 51-point win over Collingwood at Carrara last Friday night.

“They (Kangaroos) are pretty switched on having come back to training a week after we finished our season, and it’s going to be a good contest,” Hasleby said. “Two teams playing an attacking brand of footy, I’m looking forward to it.

“Hopefully we can get a win this week and that will give us three or four competitive matches before the start of the season. We want to go as far as we can, and every game we play at Fremantle we want to win.”