Fremantle forward Joel Western feels he’s developed the confidence of an AFL player thanks to his time in Fremantle’s Next Generation Academy working under former NGA coach Tendai Mzungu.
The speedy 18-year-old turned heads in the State draft combine when he set a 20m sprint time of 2.73 seconds, the fastest in all combines since records were first kept in 1999.
Western said Mzungu told him to have confidence in his pace when he was out on the field.
“Tendai always said when you go onto the field to tell yourself (a message), for example for me, reminding yourself that ‘I’m the quickest on the field, I’m the quickest on the field’,” Western said.
“It was to (remind myself) that you’ve got the speed against your opponent rather than telling yourself you were unsure, so you don’t run after the ball. That just helps in every way.”
That confidence also came out when asked what it was like to play on fellow NGA product and good friend Brandon Walker during his time in the WAFL.
A small forward/midfielder for Claremont, Western said he occasionally played on the East Fremantle defender, who is now his teammate at Fremantle.
“I’ve had a lot to do with Brandon. I matched up on him in my first colts game last year and that was good fun,” Western said.
“We had a bit of a head to head with our speed and we enjoyed that. I like to think I got the better of him that day, but it’s always good fun versing him.”
He also spoke about his experience playing on West Perth’s Heath Chapman and Perth’s Nathan O’Driscoll, who were also taken by Fremantle in the same draft.
Western backed up claims that Chapman was one of the best intercept markers from the 2020 draft crop.
“Heath was good, he never really played on anyone, he’d zone off and take his intercept marks,” Western said.
“I never really got to play on him as he’s taller and I’d take the smaller defender but he’d play on one of our key forwards at Claremont.
“He was always intercepting our long kicks in. We had to put a bit of strategy into playing against him, lowering our eyes and not trying to bomb it in deep as he’d just intercept everything.
“I versed Nathan in the midfield quite a bit. He’s a contested beast, he loves getting the ball on the inside and feeding it to his runners. I lined up a couple times against him.”
The first-year player is placing a priority on his work in the gym this pre-season, where he hopes to build his strength to match it against AFL opponents.
“I want to keep working on my aggression, my tackling and hitting the weights room hard this pre-season so I can, hopefully, get an AFL-fit body for a game this year,” Western said.
“At the moment I’m about 71kg. I want to stay around the same weight, but just lose a bit of excess weight and just change it all into muscle. Around about the 73kg, 74kg mark would be the goal.
“(It’s for) that pressure aspect to that game. It’s getting a bit bigger, putting on a bit of size, making me a bit more confident when I tackle (against) some of the bigger defenders, that would be helpful.”
While Western feels his road to a debut would be through the forward line, he thinks a role in the midfield may also be up for grabs long term.
‘I’d like to start off playing as a forward and speaking to (senior coach) Justin Longmuir, he wants me up a little bit on the wing as well, to bring a bit of my speed into the game,” Western said.
“I’d like to start up around half forward or forward pocket and maybe in three or four years time progress into more of a (mix of a) midfield and forward role.”
