Hard work continues for East Perth co-captain LeeThursday, March 21, 2013 - 4:00 PM - by Chris Pike

HARD work has always been the hallmark of Brendan Lee's career and the East Perth co-captain has no doubt that doing just that is what's needed from his team to bounce back from a tough start to the 2013 WAFL season. 

Lee had to do the hard yards early in his career at East Perth after moving up from Busselton and played mostly reserves football for two and-a-half years before playing some good football in East Perth's midfield throughout 2009.

Then coming into 2010, he worked tremendously hard to become perhaps the fittest and hardest working player in the WAFL and that saw him have two outstanding seasons in 2010 and 2011, culminating in winning the fairest and best in 2011 and then being rookie-listed by Essendon.

Despite being hampered by injury, he won the Bendigo Bombers' VFL fairest and best award and showed some good signs in two games in the AFL for Essendon, but found himself delisted at the end of 2012 and was quick to decide to return to East Perth to build on his 63-game league career.

The start to the season didn’t go to plan, though, with East Perth managing just one goal after half-time to end up losing by 75 points to West Perth.

It left a sour taste in Lee's mouth, and indeed everyone else at East Perth, and he now is backing the Royals to bounce back strongly this Saturday against Peel Thunder at Medibank Stadium.

"Obviously going up to Joondalup is always a game we try to ramp ourselves up for and it was pretty disappointing to finish off the second half like we did, and not even rally and fight back," Lee said.

"We had a really good start to the second quarter and we were up by about three goals, but we were pretty flat coming into half-time after West Perth had kicked a few quick goals. To be honest, everyone is just really keen to get back to a game this week and improve on that last half for sure."

Lee has no doubt that Peel will be a big challenge this Saturday, though, no matter how desperate the Royals are to bounce back.

With a host of Fremantle-listed players and new recruits James Hawksley, Paul Bower, Cruize Garlett, Jarrhan Jacky and Marlon Motlop, Peel has plenty of talent but it's a former teammate that Lee is looking forward to battling.

Pat Travers returned to Peel last year after 97 games with East Perth and Saturday will mark Lee's first chance to go up against him.

"We just need to lift our intensity around the ball and get back to being good at contested footy. Our skills obviously weren’t the best last week, but just our appetite for the contest needs to improve and if it does, we will be OK," he said.

"Regardless of their recruits, they have improved every year for the last five or six years so they were always going to be a better side. With the guys they have got on board as well like Cruize Garlett and even Patty Travers, their midfield is pretty strong and they have a well balanced side.

"I get along really well with Patty and it will be a good laugh. He has a bit of white line fever so I might get a few scratches and bites, but seriously it will be good to play against him and see how I can shape up against a quality player like that. He finds more footy than nearly anyone I have come across."

The changes to East Perth's list since Lee departed for Essendon and returned 12 months later has been minimal with the major differences now being that Brian Dawson has replaced Tony Micale as coach, and Paul Johnson is on board as the best ruckman in the WAFL.

"Daws has been a great refresher for the group to come in and implement some new strategies and give us a new voice. I think it's only going to be a good experience for the guys to go through with his experience both professionally and from when he was at Swan Districts," Lee said.

"I heard really good things last year about Johnno and from what I've seen over the last two weeks he is definitely going to be a lot of help for myself and the rest of the midfielders. I just have to get a bit of continuity of playing with him and that will come over the next couple of months."

Lee is honoured to be co-captain alongside 204-game veteran Craig Wulff this year with 157-gamer Michael Swan stepping down, but the 25-year-old is glad that he can further develop his leadership with both star veterans continuing to lead from the front at the club.

"When I first came back from Melbourne I thought that this might be Wulffy's last year, but I definitely don't see that happening now. He really is as motivated as I've ever seen him and before the game on Saturday he really showed how motivated he is," he said.

"The thing with Wulffy is that he's still as passionate about the game and to do the work as he was when he was younger, so I don’t see him stopping anytime soon. Swanny was looking to step down from that role and I think it will be great for his game so he can just concentrate on his role in the team, and so he can concentrate on building up his business.

"For me to be nominated with Wulffy was great and I was really humbled by it. It's a good time to do it as well when Michael Swan is still there along with Wulffy. I still have a long way to go and I can learn a lot from those guys."

Now that he has had a few months to gain some perspective on his time at Essendon in 2012, Lee is glad that he got the opportunity to live out his dream of playing in the AFL, and despite being understandably disappointed to have lasted just one year, he still wishes the Bombers well.

"It's very disappointing firstly, but I'm definitely not bitter at all. I'm a huge supporter still of Essendon and where they want to go and I appreciate and respect that they are in a position as a top three Victorian club where success is expected," he said.

"I definitely appreciate the chance that they gave me and I'm disappointed to not be there, but I come back a much better player and I learned a lot of things along the way over there not just about my footy."

Credit to Lee, though, that unlike many AFL players who are lost when delisted and relying on state league clubs to find them jobs upon recruiting them, he was already well set up off the field thanks to a business he started up in February of last year.

Fifo Capital helps small and medium-sized businesses across Victoria and Western Australia to overcome cash flow obstacles.

Lee continues to split his time between Perth and Melbourne helping companies with both expansion and operational efficiency with their finances, and it's something he is just as passionate about as his football.

"I set up the business in February of last year so I was doing that while playing footy over in Melbourne," Lee said.

"We have a lot of work to do but I'm enjoying that side of things."