Move west best decision Turner ever madeThursday, April 18, 2024 - 10:55 AM - by Chris Pike

HAVING got to experience his career highlight with last year's WAFL premiership at East Fremantle and now thriving on the West Australian lifestyle, it's fair to say Fraser Turner's move west was the best decision he ever made.

Turner might only be 24 years of age, but has now already played state football in four states having grown up in Tasmania, then joining Richmond and playing in the VFL before spending time in the SANFL at South Adelaide, and having joined East Fremantle last year.

That has him well positioned to know where he is best suited and where he most enjoys his football and living. It's hard to go past East Fremantle on the back of playing a key role in last year's premiership and the lifestyle he is loving in WA.

Delivering on grand final stage

It took Turner no time upon arriving at East Fremantle last year to find his spot on the wing with the Sharks and by the end of the season, he was one of the best players on the field in the grand final triumph at Optus Stadium against Peel Thunder.

Turner capped off his first WAFL season with a 37-possession performance in the premiership triumph so to say that everything turned out better than he hoped with the move would be a giant understatement.

"I'd say that it is my career highlight for sure to date," Turner said.

"Obviously all you want is team success and I was so happy to get the premiership medal, but in saying that everyone sort of prides themselves on being able to play well in big games, and finals.

"I definitely set myself to play a good finals series and help us get there, and play my part in us winning it so to think I did play a part in us getting over the line is definitely something that I'm proud of."

Settling in to WA lifestyle

You can't get much further away in Australia from where Turner grew up in Clarence in Tasmania to now living in Perth, and you also can't get a much more different lifestyle in living in the two states or cities.

What Turner quickly realised once he moved to Perth, though, was that he was ideally suited to the lifestyle and it might now be hard for him to imagine living anywhere else.

"It's a great lifestyle and I love living over here. It's crazy that it's almost late April and every day is still around 30 degrees and I love the laidback lifestyle over here," Turner said.

"I love going to the beach and it's easy to get around and I find it a very enjoyable place to live. Originally I'm from Tassie so it's a lot of different to there and it's a long way, but I feel really settled here now and I love it."

On top of loving living in Perth, Turner is also well set up both working and studying, and combining that with his football commitments it's a pretty hectic schedule, but he wouldn’t want it any other way.

"I'm also working as an education assistant at Leeming Senior High School and I'm studying primary school teaching online at Tas University as well," he said.

"I feel like that gives me a bit of balance with footy and takes my mind off it from time to time which is helpful for me. That also helps me feel settled living over here as well having that good work and studying structure as well."

Being perfectly suited to playing WAFL

After having a look at what WAFL football looked like in 2022 and then getting to know the way East Fremantle wanted to play, Turner felt like it could be something that he would be suited to.

At the same time, until you actually hit the deck and find out for yourself, you are never quite sure how you are suited and how you will go. But what Turner knew during 2022 was that he wanted to be part of East Fremantle and experience playing in the WAFL.

"I had been talking to Brad Dodd throughout 2022 and he got me over to watch a couple of games, and I went and saw the Sharks play a couple of times to see the way they played," Turner said.

"By doing that I thought the style would really suit me and I'd heard that it was a little bit different to the SANFL in terms of the ovals over here that are a bit bigger and the way that the Sharks were trying to play.

"So I'd heard about the style and then got to see a couple of games, but you never really know how it would suit you until you start playing. But I loved everything about last year especially playing on the wing and that role really suits me.

"That was another big reason choosing the Sharks because of the way we move the ball which really suits the way I like to play."

While Turner wasn’t quite sure how the WAFL would suit him before he arrived, as the year progressed he was feeling more and more comfortable. To end up with him playing such a key role in the premiership was everything and more he hoped it would be.

"If you would have told me at the start of last year that I'd become a premiership player then I would have probably pinched myself, and not believed it," he said.

"It was an awesome year and I think I just grew in confidence as the year went on in terms of honing in on my role and once you start stringing a few good games together, I think you get that confidence that you do belong.

"That really helped with my game especially towards the back end of the year where I felt that's where I played some of my best footy."

Different feeling coming into 2024

Now that Turner has a year of playing in the WAFL under his belt and is settled into living in WA, he's feeling a lot more comfortable coming into the 2024 and knowing what to expect on the field, and settled off it.

"I'm definitely feeling a lot more settled than I did this time last year. Obviously I had never played any WAFL footy before my first game last year so I didn’t really know what to expect," Turner said.

"I did come over in 2022 and watched the Sharks play a couple of time, but until you're actually out there it's hard to get a feel for it.

"Definitely coming into Round 1 this year I felt a lot more comfortable knowing my role and what's expected of me every week. That gives you that bit more clarity of mind when you go out there each week."

Reflections on loss to Eagles

To have a bye now this weekend before taking on Swan Districts next Sunday is hardly ideal timing for East Fremantle after the reigning premiers lost to the wooden spooners West Coast who snapped a 28-game winless streak in the process.

For Turner and the Sharks there are plenty of things to learn from the game and the build up to it.

"It's obviously not ideal timing for a break this week. When you have a bad loss you sort of want to get straight back into work and make amends, but now we have to stew on it for another week which is not ideal," he said.

"We reflected pretty heavily on it and obviously we reviewed it on Monday and looked at a few areas that we went wrong in.

"We sort of reflected on the week and thought that maybe our preparation wasn’t as good as it could have been, and coming out of the view there was mainly an emphasis on our two-way running and our defensive efforts.

"That's something we really pride ourselves on as a team and our team-first attitude so to be honest those were the two main things that we took out of the game that we will be looking to work on at training this week, and then next week leading into our next game."

Thoughts on start to the season

While the start to the season hasn’t quite gone to plan for East Fremantle with just the one win from three games, the Sharks have been missing a host of key premiership players each week which hasn’t helped matters.

However, Turner saw what they could overcome last year with injuries and without a home base, so they won't be making excuses and will be looking to get back on track after the Round 4 bye with a Sunday clash away to Swan Districts.

"It's been a little bit frustrating especially when we lost a few key players just before Round 1 but last year one thing we were really good at was just rolling with the punches," Turner said.

"Some injuries didn’t go our way and obviously with our ground being renovated, we were at different venues two nights a week training here, there and everywhere. That was another thing that we mentioned on Monday was about doing it a different way and our way.

"We can't really control injuries and obviously we'd love to have our full strength team out there, but we need to get back to taking things as they come and controlling the controllables like we did so well last year.

"We also back in the next man to come in and play their role with guys out and we're pretty confident that everyone knows our system well enough to slot in and play a key role."