Bartholomew fights way back into West Perth's best teamThursday, September 10, 2015 - 10:59 PM - by Chris Pike

A MAN of lesser character might have let being dropped as a premiership player and life member of his club get the better of him, but West Perth wingman Ray Bartholomew instead knuckled down to earn his position back and now he has a chance to help the Falcons to a second flag in three years.

The popular and hard-running 30-year-old has been a permanent member of the West Perth side ever since 2005, and has now played 185 matches, played in the 2013 premiership, played for Western Australia, been twice fairest and best runner-up and earned life membership.

However, Bill Monaghan hasn’t become the longest serving coach at West Perth in the club's history without making some tough decisions and Bartholomew found himself spending nine weeks in the reserves earlier this year despite the track record he has over the last decade.

Rather than be disheartened by that and decide that his career was winding down, instead Bartholomew took it upon himself to be a leader in the reserves helping the young players develop while delivering consistent performances that meant his league career would get another chance.

Now, Bartholomew has been in the side for the last eight games of the home and away season, and last Sunday's 109-point qualifying final win over Peel Thunder at HBF Arena, and his career appears to have plenty of life left in it whether he decides to play on in 2016 or not.

Bartholomew admits that it hasn’t been an easy year to deal with having to fight his way back into the league side, but he never doubted that the sight of him dashing down the wing of HBF Arena and kicking long goals from 50 weren’t behind him. And he again proved that on Sunday.

"My recovery and body has been really good this year, but it has been a challenging year personally form-wise. I got dropped and went back to the reserves, but in saying that it's been a good thing for me to be able to play with all these young guys and help to develop them hopefully into league footballers for the years to come," Bartholomew said on 91.3 SportFM.

"I've enjoyed that challenge and have still enjoyed my footy this year, but I had to chip away at it and I've been fortunate to come back into the side over the last eight games and then was fortunate enough to play last week. Hopefully I can continue on this weekend and you never know what happens at the end of the year."

West Perth won its first ever final at HBF Arena on Sunday against a weakened Peel side to book its place against Subiaco in this Sunday's second semi-final at Medibank Stadium, and Bartholomew was pleased with how the Falcons clicked with 21 goals to two after quarter-time against the Thunder.

"We had spoken all week about how Peel would come out of the blocks fast, and we knew we had to be up for the challenge, and I think it was more about our mental attitude," he said.

"In the first 25 minutes full credit goes to Peel Thunder for coming out and pressuring us, and we just didn’t use the ball well and didn’t run in numbers like we usually do.

"We didn’t play our style of footy and it took Bill at quarter-time to give us a good old spray and after that we got control of the game and played the footy that we know we can play."

Subiaco has been the dominant WAFL team all season finishing four games clear on top of the ladder, but West Perth did hand the Lions one of their three defeats for the season in the last meeting of the two teams and Bartholomew is confident that they can win again to move straight into the grand final.

"We think as a group that we match up very well against Subiaco. Obviously they have been the best team in the competition all year and that's why they finished on top by four games, so we know it's going to be a long grind all day and we'll have to bring a better effort than we did last week to beat Subi," he said.

"It's going to need a full four quarters and we have to make sure we have everything right with our structures, hitting our targets and kicking our goals. Hopefully we can be on the winning end come 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon."

Given the form that Bartholomew is finishing the season in, there's every chance he could again play on in 2016 and potentially reach 200 games, but with two children at home and the knowledge that things won't get easier as he moves further into his 30s, it's not a decision he's ready to make yet.

"I'm not too sure yet, I'm just looking at finishing this year out and we'll see what happens," Bartholomew said.

"Obviously there are a lot of factors that occur in my life at the moment and I have two little kids, one is nearly four and the other nearly one, so family and my kids do come into it. There is a time in your career when you have to start thinking about life after football but we'll just see what happens."