Premiership focus as Tiger Lim earns life membershipWednesday, September 14, 2022 - 10:57 AM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT is in his blood and Revo Fitness Stadium has been his home and away from home for much of his life so it means the world to Tigers wingman Ryan Lim to earn life membership, but that all gets put aside with a cut-throat final to take part in on Sunday.

Lim will play his 150th game for Claremont this Sunday in the WAFL first semi-final which sees his Tigers play host to Peel Thunder at Revo Fitness Stadium with the winner to advance to the preliminary final while the season is over for the loser.

Having been a junior standout coming through the ranks at both Claremont and Hale, Lim settled into colts football a decade ago including winning a premiership in 2013, and it's been quite the journey for him to be about to earn life membership.

By playing his 150th game, the now 26-year-old will qualify for automatic life membership of the Claremont Football Club and he's reaching the mark on the back of the best and most consistent season of his career.

He has long been a reliable member of the Claremont team, but Lim's game has gone up another level throughout 2022 where he's averaged 27.7 disposals a game. 

His consistency is highlighted with him never having fewer than 17 touches a game while having more than 30 eight times and being rewarded with his first appearance in the WAFL State Team along the way.

While Sunday looms as one of the biggest days of his career, Lim's focus is solely on the job at hand and that's winning to advance to a third preliminary in four years.

"We had a good season and put ourselves in a position to have the double chance, but unfortunately to play how we did on the weekend was disappointing," Lim said.

"But we earned the double chance and have the opportunity to go again and make up for our poor performance on the weekend. It is a good opportunity in coming up against a pretty strong Peel Thunder side when people externally have probably written us off. 

"Internally we have a lot of belief that we can go all the way and that our best footy can't be stopped by anyone in the competition. That's definitely the focus for this week and I guess if a milestone gives anyone an extra one per cent that's a bonus, but it's definitely not about me this week."

The focus is understandably all on the fact that Claremont is playing a cut-throat final on Sunday, but at the same time Lim is deservedly tremendously proud of the fact that his commitment to the Tigers for more than a decade will now see him rewarded with life membership.

"It's pretty tough to put into words and similarly I think it's something that I will probably look back on when the journey's done, but right now you take it week by week and we have a final to prepare for," Lim said. 

"But you look at the great players in the past that I've played with and haven't played with that have been able to make it to 150, and it is a great honour. To be given life membership at the Claremont footy club will just be unbelievable. 

"It's a place I've been at for five or six times a week just about every week for the past 12 or 13 years since I was 15, 16 years old. That is something that fills me with great pride and honestly I can't wait to run out on Sunday."

It's been a fascinating journey over the last decade plus for Lim with Claremont as well. Just as he was playing colts, the Tigers' league team was on the back of a dominant period between 2010-13 but then found the going tough and he didn’t play in a winning final until the 2018 elimination final.

He also spent his early years with Claremont Oval undergoing its redevelopment which dragged on longer than planned with the Tigers playing home games at the Showground but not having a genuine home base.

However, they are now in the middle of a fifth consecutive finals appearance having reached a Grand Final in 2020 and preliminary finals in 2019 and 2021 so it's been quite the ride to this point for Lim over his first 149 games.

"I think it makes you appreciate it more having been through the whole journey. My last colts year was the first year at the Showgrounds when we were living out of the police building with portable showers, portable bins for ice buckets and that was a bit of a challenge," he said.

"I think it was tough on the group and everyone involved at the time. I personally liked the oval itself there to play on, but it just didn’t really feel like home or a footy club at that location. 

"It was then great to be able to move back to Claremont Oval and we've been blessed with the facilities that we have which gives us the best opportunity to succeed. Having been through those early days when we didn’t have a home, it makes you appreciate it that little bit more."

Adding to the occasion on Sunday for Lim is that he will get to celebrate his milestone at Claremont Oval, but more importantly the Tigers have a strong home ground advantage at the venue as well.

Claremont has won all three home finals that Lim has been part of including last year's first semi-final win against West Perth while coming into Sunday they've won 11 of their last 13 home matches.

"It was a driving factor for us this season to put ourselves in a position to get a home final," Lim said.

"Unfortunately late in the season we cost ourselves that opportunity in terms of finishing in the top two, but being able to go back home this Sunday where we've played a handful of finals the last few years, it is an unbelievable atmosphere. 

"The ground doesn’t fit that many people into it, but at the same time all the people that do show up are crammed in and the atmosphere is unbelievable because there's no free space. It definitely fires us up and I still remember last year against West Perth when that atmosphere was unbelievable in the finals. 

"And to be able to play a milestone at home is an added bonus for me in the sense that a lot of my friends and family that live in the area will be able to come down to support the boys, and hopefully will us on to a preliminary final."

Saying that Lim is having his best season in 2022 isn't to detract from what he's done the rest of his career because he's been an important member of the Tigers line-up ever since confirming his position in 2015.

He's barely missed a game since and is one player who any of his coaches Michael Broadbridge, Darren Harris and Ash Prescott know they can rely on to prepare diligently, come ready to play and perform consistently out on the field.

However, he has gone up another gear in 2022 and he admits himself that he's enjoyed poking a little out of the shadow of his superstar teammates like Jye Bolton and Bailey Rogers, and former AFL-listed players like Callan England, Declan Mountford and Jared Hardisty.

"I've definitely had one of my most consistent seasons so far and I've just been really enjoying it. I've got the freedom under Ash Prescott and Andrew Foster as my coaches to just play my game, and play to my strengths," he said. 

"I'm lucky that it has led to me being able to contribute to how the team has been performing and my main goal is to help us win games the best way that I can. 

"To be able to do that more so this year more than any other season has been really pleasing for me, and I've been really kind of happy to step up a bit more. 

"I've probably sat in the background for a lot of my career and never really stood out to an extent so it's nice to kind of be getting a bit of recognition every now and then as well as I get a bit later in my career."

Along the way in 2022, Lim made his debut playing for Western Australia in the State game against South Australia at Optus Stadium while his seven times named in the Team of the Week has him primed for a first Team of the Year nod.

Now to be able to celebrate his 150-game milestone it's been a big year for Lim, but ultimately it all falls to the wayside in the chase for that elusive premiership with the Tigers attempting to breakthrough for a first flag since 2012.

"Even without those other things, it's still the No. 1 goal to win that premiership. It has definitely been nice this season to tick a few of those extra things off, but the premiership is the ultimate one and that's the thing we'll keep striving for," Lim said.

"That's the thing that everyone really wants to get their hands on so it's a huge motivating factor and we don't have a senior premiership player in our team at the moment so we'd like to change that soon. 

"It's a massive driving force for us and we've got a good mix of young and old, and everyone kind of understand what that means. We still have a great opportunity this year."

It's been a fascinating season in a lot of ways for Claremont. Coming off another heartbreaking loss in last year's preliminary final to South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, the Tigers have again put themselves in the flag race throughout 2022.

The best of Claremont has been unstoppable including two wins against minor premiers West Perth, wins over fellow finalists East Fremantle, South Fremantle and Peel Thunder, and rightfully Lim and his team feel their best can't be stopped.

However, the Tigers have also put in some poor showings including consecutive losses mid-season to East Perth and South Fremantle, and then twice in the past three weeks against East Fremantle including last Saturday's qualifying final.

Despite that, Lim remains confident the Tigers can bring their best now over the next three weeks starting Sunday.

"It's definitely the mindset thing on game day. We're prepared incredibly well by coaching staff and all the support staff throughout the week, and they put us in a really good position to come out and perform every week," Lim said. 

"Us as players have to take the brunt of the blame for the poor performances we have dished up this season when we essentially haven’t come to play. It's disappointing that we did that in such a big stage in a qualifying final which could have set us up for the double chance to make it into the Grand Final. 

"Now we've lost that and the feeling that there is no tomorrow if we don’t show up again could be an extra motivator this week. We've really got to come out of the blocks firing and we know our best footy will get it done."

While Claremont is playing in a fifth straight finals series, the last four years has been littered by heartbreak and mostly revolving around South Fremantle down at the port where their season ended in the preliminary finals of 2019 and 2021, and Grand Final of 2020.

Those painful experiences can be used now for Lim and his fellow experienced teammates Bolton, Rogers, Lachlan Martinis, Jack Lewsey, England, Mountford, Declan Hardisty, Jared Hardisty, Oliver Eastland, Alex Manuel and company.

However, it's also important to remain focused on the job at hand so it's a combination of using the motivation of the opportunity ahead while calling on the pain from the past to not feel like that again.

"I feel like leaning on past experiences and remembering the disappointments from past season is definitely a motivating factor for a lot of us especially the senior players who have been around as being that second or third team for a number of years," Lim said.

"We know that three more wins will get us a premiership and that will bond us for life, and that in itself is enough motivation but you can draw on all those other things as well. 

"We've beaten West Perth twice, we had a really good win against Peel a few weeks and we beat East Freo earlier in the season so we don't have any doubt we can beat all the remaining teams in the finals. That in itself gives us that belief as a playing group that we can get it done, we've just got to bring it."

That bond of Lim with his long-time teammates is something he hopes can now bring them together when the going gets tough come Sunday and for his sake, over the next three weeks.

"It's both a spoken and unspoken connection with us senior guys in that we just try to get the best out of each other," Lim said.

"That starts in early November when we're doing all the extras together and you show up to the gym, and each other just there without it being planned. 

"You can really tell the drive that guys have who have felt that heartbreak before, and that definitely connects us. It connects us on field as well because when you see someone down it helps you bring that up if you've developed that strong bond together."