THE WAFL website will be publishing columns from players throughout the 2013 season taking a look at what it takes to be a successful WAFL player and build a life outside the game. This week it's Claremont's dual premiership player, Sandover Medallist and Simpson Medallist Luke Blackwell.
I start work pretty early and usually get there by 6.30am. I'm project manager at a mining company called RCR Mining and we repair, and fabricate mining equipment. I'm a machinist by trade and got into this role just under 12 months ago. It is a pretty tough juggling act though. I work nine or 10 hours a day and then come to the footy club most nights of the week at about 4.30 or 5 o'clock.
It's just all about giving everything to whatever it is you are doing. If I'm at work I am 100 per cent committed to that with my head down and bum up, and then I flick the switch when I come to footy training and get into footy mode and work hard 100 per cent at that, and train as hard as I can.
I think it is a good balance for me and I also have a lot of support from my girlfriend who I live with. She is amazing. She cooks my meals and puts up with me not being home much and is a real positive person with a sporting background herself, so she helps me through with positive thinking and getting that balance and time management right.
With footy, we train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights but on Tuesday and Thursday I try to come down for either weights or boxing. Every now and then I have Thursday off to get a bit of a spell from the footy club so I try to have every second Thursday off when I can. Then we play mostly on Saturdays and have recovery on Sunday.
It is a lifestyle and you have to love it to do it, but I really enjoy it and I have become used to it now. I enjoy it because I am one of those people who always need to be doing something and I need my mind focused on something. I need to put my mind on something and run with it so I enjoy always having something I need to be doing.
It's probably more of a strain on my family because I don’t see them or my friends as much, but when I get the chance I make sure I make the most of seeing them.
While I was out injured, it was a little bit different and I had more Tuesday's and Thursday's off because I was limited to the amount of stuff I could do here at the footy club. Instead of preparing for training and then actually training, I would just prepare to do my rehab and do my rehab, my fitness work and then do my weights in that time while the boys were still training. I had a bit more time away from the club and that has probably helped my desire and want to get back and play in a winning side.
Looking back to when I was in the AFL with Carlton life was a lot different. I had a lot of down time and a lot of free time then and you don’t make the most of your time when you are at AFL level, but it's changed a bit in the years since I have been out. I've heard now it's more like a 9-5 job but when I was there I was at the club for three or four hours a day, and then you had gaps in between sessions where you had time to yourself or the rest of the day off.
It was a lot different and the man hours between what I do at work and at the footy club is probably quadruple the time I spent on footy in the AFL, but you have to enjoy it and I certainly do.
To be honest I did find it tough adjusting when I first got used to working and training in the first year out of the AFL. Because I was a machinist as well, I was up on my feet all day and then coming to training it really took away how much I could give out on the track, and I got really tired there at the start and didn’t realise how much effort it takes to work and still play WAFL football at a level where it's what you would consider up to scratch.
I found it a little bit tough at the start, but since then it's become routine and I have matured as a person as well so I have got that time-management sorted out, and worked out how to flick the switch while I'm at work and then onto footy when I'm at the club.
The job I'm doing now also isn’t as physical as it was when I was a machinist. Basically I quote and run jobs through our fabrications and machine workshop. I do go out to the workshop a fair bit, but 75 per cent of the time is spent at my desk so it's a lot less taxing on the body and it was lucky that I had this job when I had my injury earlier this year because I was on crutches and wouldn’t have been able to get around the workshop. My employer has been amazing for me and have helped me a fair bit.
It isn’t easy to keep living the lifestyle as you start to get older though and I have enormous respect for guys that can do it for so many years. As you get older your priorities change. In your younger days, it's all about your footy or it was for me when I was 17, 18 and 19 but your priorities soon change and family comes into it, so does a girlfriend and then work becomes so much more important and it's your main bread winner so you need to put a lot of time and effort into that.
I like to think I still have a few more years of senior football left in me. I haven’t really thought too much beyond next year, though, when my contract is up but it's hard to say what is going to happen in life.