Standout East Perth defender proud to reach 100 gamesFriday, August 18, 2017 - 10:57 PM - by Chris Pike

HE has earned his reputation as the best lockdown defender in the WAFL and while the journey to 100 games has had a few more injury hurdles than he would have liked, East Perth co-captain Kyle Anderson couldn’t be prouder to get there this Saturday.

Anderson made the move from Margaret River to join East Perth to first play colts back in 2009 and impressed sufficiently to make his league debut and play five matches and show exciting signs for the future as a teenager.

But it wouldn’t be until Round 1, 2011 that he made another appearance in the league side and virtually ever since then when he has been healthy, Anderson has built his reputation as the best and most respected lockdown defender in the WAFL.

Over the course of his 99-game career to date with East Perth, you could count on one hand the times Anderson has lowered his colours as a key defender in his battles up against all the star forwards of the WAFL over the past seven years.

Anderson has proven ever reliable in his match ups in defence and along the way became one of the most popular figures at East Perth, and someone universally respected through the rest of the competition.

While when on the field Anderson has been outstanding, unfortunately for the 27-year-old it has just taken longer than it should have to reach 100 games because of a host of injury troubles including a shoulder he hurt in this year's WAFL historic state game victory against the VFL in Melbourne.

Anderson went on to miss five games after that shoulder injury as co-captain at East Perth before making his return in Round 18 against South Fremantle in Busselton.

He has since been a key contributor in the past three wins against Claremont, West Perth and Swan Districts that has seen East Perth move into fifth position on the ladder heading into this Saturday's clash with Perth at Lathlain Park.

That game will double as Anderson's 100th for East Perth and while it's not on home turf, it is back at the same venue that he kicked a career-best seven goals back in Round 6, 2015. He has only kicked eight goals in his other 98 games with the Royals.

Anderson is proud to reach the 100-game milestone now after the tough road he's had to fight through to get there.

"It means a lot to get to 100 games. This is my ninth year that I've been down at the club and it's such a proud club with such tradition so it means a lot to me. I've made some great friends down there and I'm honoured to play 100 games this weekend," Anderson said.

"It is pretty special to get to a milestone like this. It has been a pretty long haul and I've obviously had a fair few injuries along the way, but that's footy and that's life. 

"There are a lot of people worse off than I am and I'm just lucky to be able to play footy and I'm stoked to get to 100 games. It has taken a while but it is special to get there now and I'm looking forward to it."

As for his defensive prowess, Anderson simply puts it down to the fact that he is such a competitor that he doesn’t like to be beaten. He does take pride in his efforts as a key defender but he hasn’t quite given up on playing forward again one day given he has kicked seven goals in a game.

"I just like to pride myself on being able to compete and every time I go out there I give 100 per cent effort and I just hate to lose," he said.

"So I give my all in every contest and that's probably held me in good stead. I just focus on trying to beat my opponent and trying to do the best I can for the team, and I always hope that if I'm doing my part for the team then it will help us win at the end of the day.

"Every now and then I whisper in Webby's ear about playing forward this week but he quickly shuts that down and tells me I'm staying down back. I am more settled back there and have played there my whole life. 

"I think I'm better suited to playing down back and it is my natural position. It was a bit of a bonus when I kicked a few goals but the team looks to be more settled with me down back and that's where I'll be staying."

Anderson played with some outstanding veterans and leaders through the early parts of his career including Craig Glancy, Michael Swan, Luke Webster, Craig Wulff, Adam Pickering, Brendan Lee, Paul Johnson and Garry Moss. 

He credits a lot of those as helping him develop his own leadership to the point now where he feels comfortable in the role as co-captain.

"When you play with the blokes I have played with like Swanny, Webby, Plucka, Wulffy, Pickers and all those great, natural leaders, you do learn some things off them. I'm probably not a natural leader in terms of being really vocal, I have developed my leadership over the last couple of years," Anderson said.

"That's another thing that I hold pretty close to my heart is that I have been named co-captain the last couple of years and it's a great honour. Wulff especially helped me the last couple of years and I'm still in close contact with Swanny and obviously Webby and Pickers are still at the club. They are all great to still bounce things off and I learned a massive amount off those guys."

Over the course of his career, Anderson has played with plenty of teammates at East Perth with much more than 100 games of experience including the club's games record holder Wulff who retired at the end of last year on 286 games.

But up until three weeks ago, no current East Perth player had 100 games of experience in the WAFL and that changed when Nathan Blee reached the milestone. 

Now this Saturday, both he and Fraser McInnes reach the century mark as Anderson adjusts to life with a whole new generation of East Perth players emerging and making their mark.

"We have had a few guys leave this year unfortunately like Stevie Payne who is a good mate of mine and Jarrad Oakley-Nichols was another one, but with those guys going out it has given the younger guys the opportunity," he said.

"We've seen Ameduri, Shayne Hille, Stan Wright and Scotty Jones come in and have a massive impact. Whilst the games played for some players is still pretty small, that youth is pretty exciting coming through and I think that always makes for a healthy footy club.

"Me and Nath are very close. When I first came to the club in 2009 to start colts training the first two blokes I met were Nathan Blee and Freddie Clutterbuck. Since then Nath and I have become good mates and he is in unbelievable form at the moment. 

"He had an unbelieve pre-season and put in the hard work and he has just been playing great footy. He's got a cool head, he is experienced and he's been brilliant for us this year. We are very close and we sit up the back talking a bit of nonsense here and there, but he is a good man."

Anderson decided to make the move along with girlfriend Kristen once they finished high school back in 2009 to come to Perth from Margaret River. For him that meant joining East Perth and he always hoped it would turn out well for him.

So almost a decade later, he couldn’t be happier to be able to call himself a 100-game player with the Royals and for all the support he has received to stick at his football career.

"It was a big move up and I was 18 years of age and came up with my girlfriend. I'm one of those people that if I want to get into something I'll stick at it and I've done that when there were times I could have easily probably pulled the pin," Anderson said.

"But I was pretty determined to have some success at the club and I always hoped when I moved up here and joined the club I would be here for this long. I love being around the club so to get nine years in to still be loving it, hopefully I have a few more years left. 

"I have had some pretty serious injuries so there have been hard times, but with Kristen, my family and friends they have kept things positive for me. The support there is key to get through anything you should deal with in life."

As for all the injuries Anderson has suffered, it was breaking his left ankle that ended his 2016 season prematurely in Round 10 last year that was the hardest to overcome. 

But he couldn’t be prouder to have overcome that and been back to his very best form in 2017 either side of the shoulder injury that happened in the state game triumph in Melbourne.

"My ankle was probably the worst one and that was the biggest one for me to come back from. I knew it was going to be a long recovery and I'd be lying if I said I didn’t have some doubts if I could make it back from it," he said.

"But I gave it time and did the rehab and it started to get better slowly. I was never going to give up and I was always going to do everything I could to come back from it, but that was the toughest injury I've had to deal with I'd say."

Anderson was there for East Perth's losing grand finals of 2013 and 2014 and remains desperate to achieve that ultimate success at the Royals as they try to reach the finals for a sixth straight year in 2017.

Having been so close for much of his career with the Royals, Anderson hopes that East Perth's good recent form with three straight wins can continue over the last two rounds of this season and carry on into the finals.

"It is pretty open at the moment and teams are beating teams above or below them on the ladder so it's going to be a pretty interesting last couple of weeks to see where everyone ends up," Anderson said.

"We obviously didn’t have the best start and we were 0-5 but then got into gear a little bit and fortunately we've been able to play some good footy the last three or four weeks. 

"But we are still building and hopefully we can continue the form into the next couple of weeks and if we are lucky enough to play finals, then once you are there you never know what could happen. We are confident but we still have two hard games ahead of us with Perth and Subi."