In the latest episode of Old Bull, Young Buck, forward Travis Colyer described how he feels he grew as a person during his turbulent time as a member of the Essendon team that was banned for the 2016 AFL season.

He said he was reminded of one of the stranger moments of the saga by new teammate Brett Bewley when he arrived at Fremantle.

Traded to Fremantle from Essendon ahead of the 2019 season, Colyer arrived in the same off-season that Bewley was drafted from VFL club Williamstown.

During the height of the media circus, Colyer reflected on a time he trained with Williamstown and went head to head with Bewley.

“I remember there was one training session we had, we did it with Williamstown and Brett Bewley was there and I was playing on him!” Colyer said.

“There was a helicopter above training. It was like ‘what’s going on here!’. It was leading into round one and no-one really knew (what would happen).

“I didn’t remember (playing on Bewley) until after he reminded me that we played on each other in that session.”

Despite missing a year of footy, Colyer said he was pleased with how he has emerged with a greater perspective and appreciation of being an AFL player.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would never want to go through what occurred again, but I don’t know if I would change it because of who I am and how I’ve come out on the other side,” Colyer said.

“It’s given me a lot of perspective and views on life that I wouldn’t have had. I’m pretty happy with where I’m at now.

“There’s a lot of positive memories to focus on…the core group of guys that we had there, it galvanised us and it’s a bond that I think we’ll always have through that period.”

Despite that bond, Colyer said he had extra motivation to see Freo get over the line against the Bombers on Sunday at Marvel Stadium.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for us to play consistent footy and learn from the last couple of weeks,” Colyer said.

“Obviously, there’s the selfish aspect for me wanting to get the victory over the old team. I think from when I was drafted, there’s Michael Hurley, David Zaharakis, Cale Hooker, and Dyson Heppell was the year after me. There’s not too many there anymore. It’s been a bit of a change in personnel, but I still keep in contact with a fair few of them.”

Colyer said he’s embraced returning to his home state to play football.

“It’s been really enjoyable. It took me longer in the first year just to adapt going back to Perth, I hadn’t lived there for nine years, I moved out of home when I was 18. It’s just an adjustment, new coach, new teammates. I hadn’t really spent much time south of the river, that’s such a Perth thing isn’t it?” Colyer said.

“It finally feels a bit more settled now this year with the consistency, we have JL (Justin Longmuir) taking over and it’s been great.

“Even just to play footy in your home state and to have your family and friends there every week, it’s something that I underrated being away.”