One big pre-season turns Jetta into 100-game starFriday, July 18, 2014 - 4:40 PM - by Chris Pike

GRAHAM Jetta looked about as far away from a 100-game WAFL footballer as it gets upon arrival at Swan Districts in 2009, but one big pre-season changed all of that and he has turned himself into a premiership player, state footballer and now books his name on the No. 13 locker this Saturday.

Jetta originally moved up to Perth from Bunbury to help support younger brother Lewis in 2009 who at the end of that season was drafted to the Sydney Swans where he  has now gone on to play 94 matches and be a star in the 2012 AFL premiership.

However, Graham readily admits that he wasn’t in the shape required to be a regular WAFL footballer in 2009 and he played just the eight games that season for four goals as a regular small forward.

Two things changed in that summer between the end of 2009 and the start of 2010, though, and the result ever since has been that Jetta has turned himself into one of the best and most consistent running defenders in the WAFL.

Jetta got himself supremely fit and came back to start 2010 a streamlined, fit looking athlete and that new fitness base allowed him to showcase his enormous skill, pace and ability to set up play running out of defence in a new role given to him by premiership coach Brian Dawson.

Jetta now will play his 100th WAFL match with Swan Districts this Saturday against Claremont at the Showground.

"When I first came to the club I weighed about 90 kilos and everything was about Lewis, and him making the AFL so I just sort of stepped back and was in his shadow. But when he left to Sydney I had a meeting with Brian Dawson and he said that I just have to get fit if I want to have a real crack at it," Jetta said.

"I could have gone back to the country and just been an average footballer, but I decided to stick at it and the O'Donnell boys got me into boxing and that really kick started my pre-season in 2009. Since that my career has just taken off in the WAFL.

"I have won a premiership and played state footy, and I never thought I would do those things when I first came to the club. Playing 50 games I was a bit excited about, but to now get to 100 and get my name on the locker like Amesy, Simmo and Tony Notte is really special. I'm looking forward to it and can't wait."

Jetta never saw himself as a defender until Dawson mentioned it to him in that pre-season before the premiership year of 2010, but now that he has settled there he wouldn’t like to play anywhere else on the field.

"I think if anyone saw me back then they would have thought I was just Lewis Jetta's fat older brother, but I look back on that time and I thank myself for actually taking that step to get myself fit because since I have everything has fallen into place," he said.

"It actually gets a lot easier once you get fit. When I first came to the club I was playing in the reserves and everything was a struggle, but once I got fit it all fell into place. And playing the half-back role that I have since Brian pushed me down back has really opened my eyes to read the ball well, run off and create a lot of space and drive from the back-line.

"Before that I had always been a forward. I kicked 14 goals in the colts and then I came up here and Garth Taylor had just retired, and Brian Dawson wanted me to take over his role. It was a big eye-opener for me in the first six or seven games with Tallan Ames and Matthew Spencer blasting me to man up every second, but since then everything has been really good.

"The transition from being a forward to being in the back-line and learning when to man up and when to run off has been good. I actually prefer to play back now, there's too much pressure to kick goals when you are forward."

Winning the 2010 premiership is without doubt the highlight of Jetta's career to date but it's a surprise that he remembers much about it given he was knocked unconscious late in the game.

However, once the final siren sounded and Swans had beaten Claremont by a point, he was quickly up off the stretcher and the sight of him running across Patersons Stadium falling over and stumbling showed just what winning a premiership meant to him.

"The premiership is one of the best days of my life. I got knocked out in the last quarter but I remember dad and Lewis picking me up off the stretcher and pushing me out on the field to celebrate even though I couldn’t find my feet," Jetta said.

"You want to regain that feeling from that day, but you have to take little steps throughout the year if you want to get there and you have to do all the right things as a group."

While that 2010 premiership was the highlight of Jetta's career, there is no reason to suggest that Swan Districts can't win another in 2014.

Swans currently sit in second position on the ladder with a handy buffer on the third-placed Subiaco with six matches of the 2014 season remaining starting this Saturday against Claremont.

The black-and-whites had hit a bit of a hurdle leading into their NAIDOC Round clash with West Perth, but they turned on some terrific football again to beat the reigning premiers leading into the bye last week.

"The last five weeks we have sort of been playing average footy so I guess we set ourselves this week for West Perth. We knew that our second halves of games have been really good so once we got a fast start it set us up. The last four or five games we have been starting pretty slow so we wanted to get out of the blocks and that's what set the win up. Then we were able to run away with the game," he said.

Jetta is also thankful to the support of his family – particularly his parents who have helped keep him motivated to make the most of his WAFL career firstly when Lewis left for Sydney and now to help out 20-year-old brother Brandon also find his feet.

He also gives a lot of credit to now being able to play 100 WAFL games to his long-term partner Kellie Austin.

"The family has been the backbone of both Lewis' and my career, but mainly mine since Lewis went to Sydney because I was left here. I asked mum and dad if they thought I should go back home, but they told me to stay up here and keep playing footy in the WAFL and to enjoy it," Jetta said.

"I also met my partner Kellie Austin in 2010 and she gave me that will to keep playing on because you go through certain stages when you don’t want to go to training or do recovery on a Sunday morning.

"But she has given me that will to get up and go, and I guess every footballer needs that support in their life to get them going. My family and my partner have been really big factors in myself playing in a premiership, playing for the state and now playing 100 games because I wouldn’t have done any of that without their support."