Thankful Keitel proud to reach 100 with FalconsSaturday, August 15, 2020 - 8:56 AM - by Chris Pike

TO say that the strong desire for Tyler Keitel and the West Perth Football Club to become one back in 2015 has paid off in spades would be a great understatement as the WAFL's best key position player reaches 100 games this Saturday.

Keitel was always a promising junior coming through the ranks at East Perth, but by the time he was ready to embark on senior football he wanted to do that with West Perth rather than the West Coast Eagles-aligned Royals and it created quite the stoush.

The fierce on-field rivals turned bitter enemies off the ground for a while as the fight over Keitel's future became a hot topic, but in the end he was cleared to West Perth midway through the 2015 season and he has never looked back.

By 2016, Keitel became the best intercept marking and attacking, ball-winning key defender in the competition and his career was on its way. But by the start of the very next year, he went forward and has had an even more significant impact for the Falcons.

In the 64 games he has played largely as a forward since the start of 2017, only with some stints in the ruck to mix it up, he has kicked 129 goals including a best of 50 in 2018 and has been the best tall marking target in the competition, racking up 352 marks usually with a defender all over him.

Along the way, Keitel was named at full-back in the 2016 WAFL Team of the Year and then at full-forward the next two years while winning West Perth's fairest and best award in 2019, a Bernie Naylor Medal and at 24 years of age, there's a tremendous amount still ahead of him.

But Keitel isn’t shying away from how much reaching 100 games means to him which will happen on Saturday when West Perth takes on Perth at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

"It's a massive point to get to if I'm totally honest and I'm really proud of it. It's one of the bigger achievements that I've had to be able to play 100 games for this club," Keitel said.

"Obviously life membership is 150 and I am looking towards that but the only two games I've missed have been through suspension so outside of that I've been there every week since I started so I feel lucky for that and I know a lot of other players aren't as fortunate as me. So to get to this point early on is really good and I'm really proud of it."

Keitel now can't wait to have his name etched onto the No. 37 locker with West Perth as well to start building on a legacy that will last a lifetime for him at the Falcons.

"It will mean a lot to have my name on the locker. You look at some of the names already on there at the moment and they are just legends of the club so to even be on there with them is just an honour," he said.

"There are really good people down at the club now already with their name on their locker so to join them will be really good and obviously my uncle has his name on his so it will be good to join them.

"The 37 was actually just the first jumper that they gave me when I got down but it is a pretty special jumper for the West Perth Football Club. Paul Mifka wore it for a long time so I was pretty honoured when I got given it to be honest because normally you start in the 60s or 70s so it's better than that and I've never wanted to change since."

Keitel's decision back at the end of 2014 to want to move from East Perth to West Perth certainly didn’t sit well with the Royals and if you look at the player he has gone on to become, you can certainly understand why.

But he just felt West Perth would provide him the football home he was after and with the likes of then chief executive David Crute and the football department including Bill Monaghan, Jamie Ball and Ward Harris, Keitel will be forever thankful for those that got him to the Falcons.

"It was a massive call at the time but it's obviously worked out pretty well and I'm really enjoying my football at West Perth," Keitel said. 

"All the people that were involved when I did come across were fantastic and we've obviously got some new people in now who are equally as good, but to all those people who helped me get across in the first place it's a credit to them because it was a long process. 

"But I'm just grateful that I'm here now and they thought I was worth fighting for."

Keitel was always going to be a versatile player and he has shown that in spades having that outstanding 2016 season down back and now with everything he's done up forward since while also showing if he was a full-time ruckman, he'd be among the best in that position too.

Looking back now, he is glad that he began in defence so he can learn from experienced teammates and quality opponents alike before then looking to put in place what he'd learned as a forward himself.

He would go on to form quite the dangerous partnership the last two years alongside Andrew Strijk and now he couldn’t be happier to see another veteran Michael Lourey rediscover some form with eight goals the past two weeks.

"I think starting down back was a really good way for me to learn what the best key forwards in the comp were doing so that was probably the biggest thing I took away from playing down back," he said. 

"Obviously it was a bit easier to get your hands on the ball and I was playing with some quality mature players like Marcus Adams, Nick Rodda and guys who took me under their wing. 

"That was obviously really good to spend that time down back but the team required someone to go up forward and just be a target, and I feel like that's all I really was in the initial stages. 

"I just had to give the team someone to kick to and bring the ball to ground, but I had played a lot of my colts footy up forward so I did know what I was doing. 

"Once I found my feet up forward I have really loved it since and now I'm looking to mentor some of the younger boys to help them find their feet. But at the same time, it's great to see the form Lours is in," Keitel added. 

"Last week he couldn’t drop anything and he took five contested marks, and to be honest I think it's been coming for a little while. He has been getting to all the right spots and competing so it was just a matter of time. 

"But I'm still learning off him to be honest, he has a wealth of knowledge from his career here in the WAFL and the VFL so to see him get on the end of a few is always good."

Keitel is racking up the individual accolades now as he continues to perform at such a high level about to become a 100-game player and to already have a fairest and best award in his pocket as well as a couple of leading goalkicker awards.

But ultimately what he wants more than anything is to have what his teammates like Aaron Black, Shane Nelson and Laine Rasmussen have, and that is a premiership.

Keitel did play in the 2015 and 2018 Grand Final losses to Subiaco, the latter of which ultimately led to a two-game suspension and the only games he has missed since his career started with the Falcons.

So he has had a taste of the big stage and wants desperately to get back there and win this time, and he sees no reason it can't be in 2020.

"To be honest my only goal is to win a premiership for West Perth. That's the sole reason I'm still playing and is the sole reason I'll keep playing until I get that," Keitel said.

"Obviously there are nice things along the way like this 100-game milestone which I'll look back on fondly and life membership is another thing I hope to achieve. But even just the individual accolades mean nothing compared to that ultimate success. 

"I saw the reserves win one last year and to see the way that group is bonded and how much it helped us as a club it makes me want to experience that for myself. And this year we see no reason it couldn’t happen. 

"It is probably as wide open as it's been in a few years and I think anyone can win it from here which is exciting. But there's still a lot of water to go under the bridge before we can start thinking about that."

And speaking of this year's Grand Final, while getting to play on Optus Stadium would be the ideal scenario for Keitel, if playing on home turf at Joondalup's Provident Financial Oval was the next best option, he wouldn’t be complaining.

"It would mean a lot for the club and as a playing group or player we always look to want to play the last game on the big stage, and that would still be Optus Stadium," he said.

"So if it is still there that is what we'd prefer as players, but if it couldn’t be played there and we could play at Arena Joondalup that would be massive for the club financially, it would be a really good spectacle and be good for the northern coastal strip up here."

Keitel will now reach his 100th game for West Perth away to Perth on Saturday. It's a Demons team he has never lost to but he knows to win on Saturday it's going to take their best ever performance given Perth remains undefeated so far in this 2020 WAFL season.

"I think we are really setting ourselves to have a red hot crack at them on Saturday. They are going to be there abouts this year and we are hoping to play finals as well so I think this game will go a long way to deciding who makes it," Keitel said.

"With only eight games and four spots available, every game is that much more important so we'll be looking to go down there and all I want is for us to win the game. I couldn’t care if I don’t touch it, I just want to win and for us to keep moving forward as a team. 

"I've never played in a loss to Perth but let's just hope that continues because they are a very different outfit this year than I've seen before. They have some real quality running around so it's going to be a bigger challenge than any time we've played them in my time before so we just have to be ready for it."