Willem Drew in action during a training session. Image: Michael Pizzato.<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide acting captain Willem Drew said reaching 150 games is \u2018super special\u2019, especially after missing a chunk of footy early in his career through injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Connor Rozee and Zak Butters\u00a0sidelined\u00a0with injury,\u00a0the 27-year-old has taken\u00a0game day\u00a0captaincy in his stride over the past fortnight,\u00a0taking the opportunity with both hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the eve of his 150th\u00a0AFL game, Drew spoke with the Adelaide media about what it means to reach the milestone, how his leadership has grown and\u00a0how the group is keeping morale high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on game 150\u00a0
\u201cIt means a lot. Obviously, 150 games\u00a0is\u00a0super special, and no doubt I’ve got a lot of family and friends who are super proud. And it’s been a bit of a journey to get here, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0something that I’m extremely proud of.\u00a0I\u00a0just can’t wait to get out there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially\u00a0after\u00a0missing a fair chunk of footy when I first got to the club,\u00a0I’ve made it a point to try and get out there as much as I can, and really appreciate playing footy and being able to get some games in a row, which has been pleasing.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been a great journey so far, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking forward to what’s next as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on being acting captain\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0pretty crazy.\u00a0Definitely wouldn’t\u00a0have believed\u00a0it (if you\u2019d told me when I started out),\u00a0but\u00a0I think I’ve grown so much as a person, and this footy club has really helped me in that way. I’ve had some great mentors and leaders along the journey who have shaped me as well.\u00a0So\u00a0I haven’t tried to change too much. It’s probably just been a\u00a0lot of\u00a0growing and adapting, and something that I’ve really enjoyed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been enjoyable, a great opportunity, and I think the coaches have probably set up the last couple of weeks speaking about opportunity with people that are injured, and then an opportunity for myself to lead the club.\u00a0So\u00a0it’s been great for my development.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0probably more of a game day role, and obviously we’ve still got Connor and Zak\u00a0around the club who are leading as well.\u00a0So\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0found it quite enjoyable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew is enjoying his time as acting captain, describing the opportunity as “pretty crazy”. Image: AFL Photos.<\/p>\n
Drew on keeping morale high with players getting injured\u00a0
\u201cI think you can look at it\u00a0(in a negative way), but also look at the opportunity\u00a0for\u00a0another person to come in and get a go.\u00a0Obviously\u00a0it’s disappointing to see injuries and people miss out for the year. But you know, us as players, it’s great to see other people get opportunities. And we’re\u00a0a footy\u00a0club where one person goes out, we want another person to come in and play that role. So that’s the way that will be going forward as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on the Brisbane review\u00a0
\u201cThe review\u00a0was heavily focused on\u00a0team D. You probably saw in that second half just\u00a0the way that Brisbane\u00a0were\u00a0able to move the ball and they were able to hit short kicks, keep marking the ball.\u00a0So\u00a0we had a big focus around team D\u00a0and\u00a0connection,\u00a0understanding what we should be doing in certain situations. So that’s\u00a0definitely a\u00a0focus throughout the week. We trained it today, so\u00a0we\u00a0hope to see improvement in that area for sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on GWS\u00a0
\u201cThey\u2019re got\u00a0some really damaging players\u00a0who\u00a0like to move the ball quickly.\u00a0So\u00a0our team D is going to be crucial, and that’s a focus point of our game. So, it’s going to be exciting, and looking forward to getting out\u00a0there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide was victorious last time it faced GWS, running out 16 point winners on a cold Canberra evening. Image: AFL Photos.<\/p>\n
Drew on trying to finish the year strong\u00a0
\u201cYeah, absolutely. I know\u00a0Carry\u2019s\u00a0touched on that.\u00a0We\u00a0really want to push forward in this\u00a0next month of footy, and we don’t want to take a backward step. I’s\u00a0really about\u00a0learning, developing, and playing good footy. We want to get\u00a0as many wins as we can before the end of the year,\u00a0and\u00a0really set\u00a0ourselves\u00a0up. So yeah, it’s exciting for us as a group\u00a0when\u00a0we’re challenged at times with injuries and different things like that.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a good opportunity for us to stand up and really push to play some good footy\u00a0this next month.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on Jason Horne-Francis\u2019s leadership growth\u00a0
\u201cI think Jason’s obviously a superstar player and a great leader as well. And his\u00a0on field\u00a0stuff\u00a0is\u00a0first class. He sees the game so\u00a0well,\u00a0his journey and development has probably really fast tracked in the past couple of weeks.\u00a0Really pleasing for him to be able to keep growing and developing. And he’s obviously got a big future at this footy club, and will no doubt be a leader someday for sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0hard at it. Plays the right way. He’s a\u00a0really great\u00a0connector around the footy club. Yeah, I’m sure one day he might captain\u00a0in the footy club,\u00a0obviously time will tell.\u00a0He’s obviously got an exciting future ahead\u00a0and he\u2019s a\u00a0massive part of this footy club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew on Zak Butters\u2019 rehab\u00a0
\u201cThe way\u00a0that Zak’s tracking, he just wants to play footy.\u00a0His recovery and rehab\u00a0is\u00a0going really strongly, so he’s going to give himself every chance to get back. And for him it’s just about playing footy and helping the team win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willem Drew in action during a training session. Image: Michael Pizzato. Port Adelaide acting captain Willem Drew said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-830880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}