Premiership drives Schloithe ahead of 150th gameFriday, July 17, 2020 - 1:05 PM - by Chris Pike

WHILE Haiden Schloithe is rightfully tremendously proud ahead of earning life membership at South Fremantle by playing his 150th game to open the WAFL season on Saturday, it's that ultimate desire for a premiership driving him on more than anything.

From the moment Schloithe made the move up to play colts football at South Fremantle from Katanning, he appeared destined for great things going on to play in a premiership with the Bulldogs in 2011 and ultimately being rookie-listed by the Fremantle Dockers.

He made his league debut at the Bulldogs in 2011 as well and virtually ever since, has gone on to become one of the most damaging and decorated in the WAFL this century.

Along the way, the now 27-year-old has won a Sandover Medal in 2017, has become a triple WJ Hughes Medal winner as South Fremantle fairest and best, and has played for Western Australia on three occasions.

His all-round ability to win his own football in close and drive it forward, or to be damaging in space, and to be equally effective up the field finding his forward targets or kicking goals himself have made him a remarkable player now over 149 games with South Fremantle.

The wait from game 149 to 150 hasn’t been the easiest one given what happened in that 2019 Grand Final and now everything that has happened in 2020 to delay the start of the season until this Saturday, but finally the big day is deservedly here for Schloithe.

He notches game 150 this Saturday as the WAFL season opens with South Fremantle hosting East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval. 

While Schloithe is deservedly proud and humbled by the 150 games that earns him life membership, ultimately it's that premiership that drives him especially having been so close in each of the past four seasons now.

"When you go to things like life membership days and talk to past greats of the club, they always talk about the flags they have won together and that's what they remember, not the individual accolades," Schloithe said.

"You obviously play footy to win those premierships and that's one thing that I'm yet to tick off so as much as all those individual accolades are fantastic and I'll appreciate them more when I retire, what is driving me on more than anything now is winning a premiership. 

"That motivation is even stronger given what happened last year and you add in the prelims we lost before that, that's driving me on pretty heavily to want to win that premiership that's for sure."

While the wait for Schloithe to reach the 150-game mark has been an arduous one since last September, it's hard to imagine a much better occasion to now celebrate than a home game in a derby against the arch-rivals and such a big moment as the belated opening to the WAFL season.

"I do feel pretty lucky in a way that my 150th didn’t fall on the last game of last year," he said.

"Everything has now fallen into place for Round 1 this year and now even though it's been a bit of a wait, it turns out we are coming up against our arch-rivals East Freo and it's turned out pretty well. It's going to be a pretty special day and I'm really looking forward to it."

Schloithe can't hide his pride in reaching the 150 games at South Fremantle that qualifies him automatically for life membership and nor should he, the fact it means so much to him only highlights what significance the Bulldogs hold to him.

"It's a pretty special feeling that’s for sure. If someone would have told me back 10 years ago now when I was moving up to Perth to play colts that one day I'd earn life membership of the footy club I'd have said you were kidding yourself," Schloithe said.

"It's a special feeling really and it's something that I'm very proud of, and I'm grateful towards the footy club for what they have done for me. It has pretty much been my home for most of the last 10 years and I can't think everyone involved at the club enough for everything they have done for me."

While Schloithe has battled a couple of injuries over his career, none of them have seen him miss significant time in the scheme of things, and add that to his consistently strong performances and he reaches 150 games with plenty left in the tank.

"Touchwood but I haven’t really had any big, significant injuries which I'm very grateful for," he said.

"To have now played 149 games and to do it as quickly as I have is a pretty good effort. I'm pretty lucky and blessed that I haven’t missed too many games through injuries and hopefully I have plenty of good footy left to come."

The fact that the last game South Fremantle played was the 96-point Grand Final loss to Subiaco has made this delayed start to the 2020 season a little harder to stomach too, but now Schloithe just can't wait to get out there on Saturday.

"Like any game of footy, you always look forward to playing again seven days later to either bounce back or keep your form going, but there's no next game after the Grand Final and now it's still our last game of footy all this time later," Schloithe said. 

"Obviously our last performance was a really poor one and now having to wait this extra three or four months to come out and try to start putting that behind us and show everyone that we are a lot better than that has been tough. 

"But that motivation is pretty strongly there and everyone at the footy club is chomping at the bit and raring to go to get ready for this Saturday and to get the season started finally."

Now that the WAFL season for 2020 is finally upon us having been put in jeopardy and ultimately delayed almost four months thanks to COVID-19, Schloithe can reflect on just what a strange year it has been for us all already.

In terms of being a WAFL player, Schloithe and his teammates had gone through a whole pre-season, were ready to start playing a real opposition and then suddenly it was ripped away from them with no guarantee of any action actually happening this year.

That created some challenging times for Schloithe just like it would anyone, but once he got the date that there would be an actual season to work towards, things became a lot more positive and now the season opener is finally upon him.

"It's been a very strange and unique time obviously this year so far. To do a whole pre-season and then the week before we start playing pre-season footy, it gets called off is really challenging," Schloithe said. 

"Especially that first period of when it all started and there was so much unknown about what was going to happen. There was obviously some thoughts there of maybe giving it away because it's all too hard, but knowing that I was one game away from becoming a life member motivated me to stay fit, and to not give up. 

"Then we got the news that we were going to get a season which was great, and that obviously made things a lot easier to get up and go to training in terms of the motivation. But in those early days it was extremely tough that's for sure.

"It was a huge relief when we got the news our season would be back on. Just speaking to the people involved at the club in the decisions, they were saying a week or two before that it got announced that there was a real chance we'd be having no footy. 

"So when that was announced it was a huge relief to know we'd be getting a season in. For everyone that has been involved in that process, can give themselves a pat on the butt because they've done a great job in unique circumstances given this is a once in a generation type thing to deal with. They've all done a great job and I'm really pleased we'll getting some footy in this year that's for sure."

In terms of life away from football, Schloithe was able to continue working the whole way through which was a relief, but filling in time without football and without being able to go out wasn’t quite as easy to navigate.

"Luckily enough I'm an electrician and our industry wasn’t affected too much at all so I was very lucky to be able to continue to work pretty much as normal through that whole time," Schloithe said.

"But when I wasn’t working, it wasn’t always easy to pass the time to be honest. I got addicted a bit to the PS4 so that did kill a bit of time and I did try to do a little bit of fitness work by myself when I could. Early days it was a lot of sitting around and not doing too much at all after work so that was a different experience."