WAGGA footballer Matt Suckling is keen to bounce back from last year’s grand final heartache when Western Bulldogs begin their premiership defence on Friday night.
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An achilles injury derailed Suckling’s 2016 season to the point where he was forced to watch on from the sidelines as the Bulldogs went on to break a 62-year premiership drought.
It was a difficult end to his first season at the Bulldogs, but the 28-year-old has bounced back and is ready to fire in 2017.
Suckling had 22 disposals and kicked four goals in the Bulldogs’ final hit-out of the pre-season against Gold Coast.
Suckling revealed he is feeling rejuvenated coming into season 2017 after finally shaking off the achilles injury that ruined last year.
“It’s been nice to get back out there and I suppose feel normal again,” Suckling said.
“Carrying the achilles all last year, it was pretty ordinary so it’s nice to be able to run on top of the ground again and feel good.
“The back end of pre-season I’ve done a lot of work and so far, so good. I’m really optimistic that it shouldn’t really hamper me this year at all.”
Now with the finals series long gone, Suckling opened up on how much the injury took toll.
“Now the season’s finished last year, it’s easy to talk about but it was pretty ordinary at the back end of the year,” he said.
“There was a run where I had to have nearly 10 days off before I was able to run again. Basic things like walking the dog and that, it was pretty hard to do that, especially after a game. I couldn’t really go anywhere, I was stuck in the living room.
“It was pretty bad, no one really likes getting injections, especially in the achilles tendon so I was kind of waiting for the season to end last year.
“So it’s good to be back.”
Suckling was part of Hawthorn’s back-to-back premiership wins in 2014-15, so he knows what it takes.
He said there are a couple of key ingredients to back-to-back success.
“One of the main things is to remember how hard it was to win the flag,” he said.
“You can always think about the good times after you win a flag and how good the finals felt, playing so well, but I think you’ve got to remember how hard things were in those games where you really had to grind it out when we were down with injuries.
“You’ve got to remember how hard it was and know it’s not going to be all pretty and roses again, as is winning a grand final. Just remember all the gritty stuff that’s not as fun.”
The Bulldogs take on Collingwood on Friday night.
Suckling expects the Bulldogs to start the year strong.
“It would be easy to get carried away in the eight weeks off after a grand final but we came back and everyone’s been able to do a big block of training,” Suckling said.
“The second half of the Gold Coast game we were able to get our act together and we’ve used that momentum this week at training, and we’ve been pretty crisp at training and we hope that rolls into Friday night.
“It’s obviously a tough one against the ‘Pies.”