Twomey excited to be in another grand final in first year at SubiacoThursday, September 18, 2014 - 12:32 PM - by Chris Pike

WAYDE Twomey came to Subiaco from Swan Districts in 2014 confident the Lions could be a force and now he is preparing for his third WAFL grand final appearance and couldn’t be more excited about it.

The 28-year-old starred in Swan Districts' successful teams between 2008 and 2010 when he first arrived from VFL club with Werribee and in that time Swans lost the 2008 grand final to Subiaco and the 2009 preliminary final to the Lions so seeing Subiaco involved in September is nothing new.

Twomey was then part of Swan Districts' stunning one-point grand final win over Claremont in 2010 before he earned a chance in the AFL with Carlton in 2011 and then returned to Swan Districts in 2012 where he was again part of two more finals campaigns while also winning the 2013 Simpson Medal for his five-goal haul in the State game win over Victoria.

He arrived at Subiaco in 2014 with impressive credentials and has settled seamlessly across half-back and been a key factor in them advancing to Sunday's grand final against East Perth at Patersons Stadium.

Twomey delivered a best on ground performance with 36 possessions in last Sunday's preliminary final win over East Fremantle to put Subiaco into the grand final and now can't wait for this Sunday's decider – his third in the WAFL and first since 2010.

"I couldn’t be any more excited, it's an amazing feeling. I've played in two now and this is my third, and it's always a great feeling and a great day to be there in a grand final," Twomey said.

"I will try to pass on some of my experiences from grand finals but there is Rumba too who has played in five previously, Hilda has played in a few and Hors has been there before so I'm not the only one with the experience.

"It's just more about keeping your head. In the prelim, a lot of the boys were nervous and it was good nervous energy, but as a leader you try to do what you can and say what you can to help out but really it's all up in the head of each player."

Subiaco beat East Perth in the two meetings between the Medibank Stadium co-tenants during the 2014 home and away season before the Royals won the second semi-final by 32 points to move straight into the grand final.

However, Twomey still likes Subiaco's chances against East Perth but he won't be trying to put Royals coach Brian Dawson off his game after playing his first 60 WAFL games under him at Swans and with Dawson also playing a big part in his State game Simpson Medal win last year.

"I'm looking forward to it. If we beat East Perth who have been the best team this year, we know we've beaten the best to win the flag. It's not as though some other team has been able to sneak in, the best two teams are there and we are looking forward to it," he said.

"They changed things up in the second semi a little bit so it was nice to see how they can do things, but I think Schoey has a couple of things in his back pocket that he's willing to bring out. Considering that Daws is the maestro, it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

"Daws was the one who picked me to play forward in that State game as well last year, and we are really good friends. I wouldn’t play any mind games with him and he wouldn’t do it to me. We'll just treat it as a normal game and then afterwards, we will shake hands, have a hug and give the best wishes to whoever won."

While Twomey has proven himself to be a prolific ball-winning midfielder and a handy goalkicker throughout his career, the majority of his 116-game WAFL career now has seen him come off half-back where he reads the play and sets up his team so well with precision foot skills.

He has settled into that role perfectly with Subiaco even if he wouldn’t mind a bit of time in the middle, but he likes the back-line he is part of with the Lions led by four-time premiership star Darren Rumble and the emerging Daniel Leishman.

"I still want to sneak into the midfield at some stage, but I don’t think the body is going to let me. I enjoy it down back and if you can read the play well enough, and luckily enough I'm OK at it, you can do well in that position and set a lot of things up," Twomey said.

"Schoey always says to me that if I can set things up for him and maybe give two goals away by not playing that tight, but create six then I'm doing my job.

"Leishy has been a huge improver this year. He is lightning quick and if you can play him on someone who can shut down and focus on, he does the job all the time. The other thing is that he listens and he isn’t one of those guys who thinks he knows it all, he learns something new every week and he keeps improving. I'm really happy to have him in the side."

As for Sunday's thrilling preliminary final win over East Fremantle, it was a brave effort by Subiaco to overcome the absence of captain Kyal Horsley, full-forward Matt Boland and half-forward George Hampson to still advance.

Twomey was certainly relieved when East Fremantle was only able to kick seven goals from 33 attempts as well throughout the afternoon.

"I think both teams were cooked in the end and it was just going to come down to a battle of the wills. I couldn’t have been any happier that the boys stayed strong. We had a lot of inexperienced boys out there too," he said.

"I was just thinking thank god they kept missing. It was a little bit of us putting them in bad positions to take shots from too, but they did have a couple of easy misses. You just take it as it comes and we knew that the more they kept missing, the better chance we had of winning.

"I think they will be disappointed with some of their finishing, but at other times when they were streaming forward we pressed well and got the ball back. Towards the end of the game, both teams were absolutely buggered and it came down the skills of the teams more than anything."

Twomey also has no doubt that the efforts of small forward Chris Deluca should be recognised in Subiaco's win also.

He attacked a contest ferociously with East Fremantle defender Sam Read in the third quarter and managed to get the ball out to Shane Yarran who kicked a crucial goal, but then he was carried off on a stretcher with a nasty looking leg injury.

However, midway through the last quarter he returned and was back to his usual ferocious tackling best.

"That was huge and it was a game-changing moment. He knew he was going to get crunched in that contest and we knew it, but he still threw his body in and Yaz kicked the goal because of it," Twomey said.

"Watching that from the back-line, I had a look around and everyone was up and about after that. Then to see him able to come back on was massive as well."