Falcons skipper earns life membership with 150th gameFriday, April 28, 2017 - 1:25 PM - by Chris Pike

WEST Perth captain Jay van Berlo achieves a dream this Saturday at HBF Arena when he earns life membership at the Falcons by playing his 150th game against Perth.

From the moment he made his league debut for West Perth in 2007, van Berlo has been one of the WAFL's hardest working and most consistent on-ballers with him winning the club's fairest and best awards in 2008 and 2016 along with being runner-up in 2014 and 2015.

His form and commitment to West Perth has never dropped off now over a 149-game career that includes the two Breckler Medals, the 2013 premiership, representing Western Australia on three occasions being in his fourth season as captain.

He also played 32 AFL games with Fremantle either side of his West Perth career.

Now he reaches another significant milestone this Saturday at HBF Arena against Perth when the 28-year-old earns life membership at the Falcons by celebrating his 150th appearance.

Van Berlo's preparation hasn’t quite been perfect with him in Singapore for a work conference until Friday night, so any build up to the milestone will be lost upon him.

But he doesn’t want much to be made of it before the game either with the Falcons to focus firmly on trying to win a third straight match by knocking off the Demons. 

Then afterwards it would be time to enjoy what is a significant milestone for a man who will be remembered as one of West Perth's most decorated and consistent performers in the modern era.

"I guess there will be a few more family and friends there than normal just because of the occasion, and at the end of the day it's a celebration for them as well because they have been there for my journey along the way," van Berlo said.

"I've been lucky enough to have a great support network around me and it will be a good day for them to enjoy. In terms of the footy boys, I'm sure I'll cop a bit of stick about suggesting I'm nervous and what not going into my 150th, but I doubt it's going to feel too different than a normal game. 

"I doubt Bill will make much of it too and the main thing he wants is for us to win in the milestone so we can celebrate a great occasion afterwards, but not to make too much of it beforehand. The main focus for me and the boys will be to get the win on the board and then we can celebrate afterwards."

Van Berlo wasn’t quite sure how the week would pan out considering he has been away in Singapore, but he won't let that stop him being ready to go come Saturday.

He would be happy to celebrate a milestone anywhere, but he does admit to being a little more special being at HBF Arena and being in front of the passionate and loyal home supporters.

"I wasn’t sure how this conference would impact my ability to get to the 150 this week but I do find it important for me to have the milestone at home," he said.

"I love playing at the Arena and having the home crowd there just makes it extra special because you don’t always get the full contingent at the away games. 

"To do it in front of them will be great because they have supported myself throughout my career and it will be great to be out there in front of them. Hopefully they can give us that extra drive to get over the line because Perth are a decent up and coming side now. It will need our full effort to get it done."

Van Berlo certainly isn’t playing down the significance of reaching the 150-game mark to earn the life membership either.

To be a life member of the West Perth Football Club is something that means the world to him and considering the greats he has played alongside to achieve it as well, and the greats who have done it before him only highlights what an achievement it is.

"It's a massive honour. I guess the number isn’t so much the biggest thing for me, but the life membership is huge and that's something that you sort of dream about when you first come up to the club as a young kid," van Berlo said.

"The first goal was obviously to get a gig in the development squads, then the colts and work through the reserves, and eventually try and play a league game. I managed to do that and then you see some of the names on the lockers and you want to achieve that by reaching 100 games. 

"After that it was a matter of if I can get to life membership and it's great that I've made it. It's such a great family club and it has given me so much over the years that to reach life membership is a huge honour. 

"Knowing some of the players in that life members group and you see some of the legends of the footy club, it puts it all into perspective and makes me feel very humbled to be part of that group."

Van Berlo has played alongside Ray Bartholomew, Chris Keunen, Jason Salecic, Anthony Tsalikis, Matt Guadagnin, Dan Hunt, Dustin Burns, Andrew Strijk and Josh Pearce who have all reached life membership status across the past decade.

He has been honoured to play with each and every one of them, and especially his co-captain of 2014 and 2015, and premiership teammate of 2013, Luke Tedesco, who was able to achieve the life membership last year before retiring at the end of the season.

It was hearing what the achievement meant to Tedesco that made it hit home to van Berlo what it would mean to him as well.

"The most recent one that's achieved it is Luke Tedesco when he did it late last year and when he spoke about what it meant to him, that's when it hit home to me how big it was," he said.

"He puts it up there as his biggest achievement even up there with the premiership so that really made me want it even more this year. I knew I needed six games to get there but the closer you get the more you make sure you want to get there so you don’t miss out.

"Luke was the most recent one but I've been lucky enough to be there for a number of my teammates to reach 150 games and I put all of them on a pedestal as greats of the club. To join them as a life member now amongst the other legends of the past is a huge honour."

Ahead of game 150 this Saturday, van Berlo can hardly believe everything he has been able to achieve along the journey to the life membership.

"It's way, way more than I would have ever thought or hoped I could have achieved," van Berlo said.

"When I first came down to West Perth it was a phone call from Ryan Lasscock, who is now the colts coach again, and I remember almost shaking at the thought that someone from West Perth wants me to come down and train. 

"That was after I missed my first year of colts because I was playing down at my local club so it was a big thing to have the chance to do the pre-season with the colts group. Gavin Bell was the coach at that time and similarly when he told me that I would be selected in the colts squad for the year I was absolutely rapt. 

"To think that I'm now at the point where I've had a bit of success and played enough league football to be a life member and played in a premiership, having my name on the locker and being captain, it's amazing. 

"If I think back to the day I got that first phone call and there's no way I would have thought any of this was possible. It's such a great club and such a proud club with so many great players before me and there'll be so many better players after me, but I'm just stoked to be a small part of a club with great history."

The standout trait of van Berlo's 149-game career that stood out right back in 2008 has been his consistency. He takes pride in there now being little between his best and worst performances, but reality is that was something he had under control from early on in his league career.

Now as the 28-year-old is about to play his 150th game, his consistency is something he takes great pride in.

"This year my first couple of games were a bit quieter than I would have liked but the beauty of it was the boys were picking up the slack around me. Since then I have worked really hard to get myself back into the fold to contribute to the team the way I hope to," he said.

"As you get older the difference between your worst narrows and I like to pride myself on that a little bit that you will know what you're going to get from me when I run out. That's very similar to our other senior players like Andrew Strijk and Aaron Black who you always know what you'll get from before they run out. 

"It is nice knowing I'm playing some decent footy. I don’t really want to be out there and past my best and I don’t want to ever hang on too long and be keeping someone else out of the side who deserves the spot more than me. For the meantime while I'm playing footy and I'm enjoying it, it's going well and hopefully I can keep up some form and stay injury free."

Van Berlo admits to finding games now taking more out of his body than ever before, but over the past 18 months he has been able to play and train relatively pain free. 

For someone who has nearly played 200 senior games and is 28 years of age, that's something he isn’t complaining about.

"Last year was probably the best year I've had in a while in terms of my body. I felt really pain-free most weeks and I hadn’t been used to that. I wasn’t carrying any lingering issues throughout last year and this year has been much the same so far," van Berlo said.

"I've managed to get through relatively unscathed other than the bumps and bruises here and there, but you do take that little bit longer to recover week to week as you start to get older. 

"After the game in general now I'm a lot more fatigued come the final siren than I ever used to be, but I think that's both down to the pace of the game and that I'm getting that little bit older. 

"These days by the end of the afternoon I'm pretty wrecked and by the time I get home I'm ready to settle in for the night, but that's not such a bad thing."

Van Berlo is also relishing the opportunity to train and play alongside younger brother Mitch again in 2017.

The prospect of the three van Berlo brothers all playing together in the WAFL with West Perth now looks a forlorn hope with Nathan settled in Adelaide following his AFL career.

But the chance of all three playing somewhere together at least in a one-off game is something the trio won't give up on.

"We've definitely talked about it but Nathan is probably unlikely to be coming to play WAFL given that he's fairly settled over there at the moment. We have never played together as a group though," he said.

"I've been really lucky to have had the opportunity to play with Mitchell and just to even train with him is something that I know Nathan is jealous about me getting that opportunity. I love playing with Mitch and he has grown a lot as a footballer over the last couple years, but the three of us have always talked about wanting to play together. 

"It would be great fun and a good moment, and an especially proud one for mum and dad. But I just don’t know how it will work at the moment. 

"It will probably be with Nathan and I being two old baggers in the forward-line and Mitch doing all the running around in the midfield for a country or local team. But one day the plan is to play together at some level but I just don’t know how far off that is at the moment."