Sellwood confident Peel ready to give it red hot crackSaturday, September 21, 2024 - 1:22 PM - by Chris Pike

MICHAEL Sellwood has had a breakout second WAFL season in the back-line at Peel Thunder as he now looks to implement the tough lessons learned from last year's Grand Final and to even farewell the 'Mayor of Mandurah' with a fairytale on Sunday.

Peel will be taking on East Perth in Sunday's WAFL Grand Final on Sunday afternoon at Optus Stadium with the 20-year-old Sellwood about to play in a third straight decider in Thunder colours.

Sellwood celebrated a colts premiership with Peel back in 2022 and then was part of the Thunder league team that lost last year's Grand Final to East Fremantle, and now he has continued his emergence in 2024 to be a key part of their team for Sunday's decider.

It will also be the last game of the career of Sellwood's Peel teammate Blair Bell and for so many reasons he feels they are in a good place to put in a considerably better showing this Sunday against the Royals than they did 12 months ago against the Sharks.

Motivation from last year

While Sellwood and his Peel teammates won't necessarily be using last year's Grand Final loss to East Fremantle as motivation, what it does provide is a harsh lesson of what they can't afford to do again.

Upon reflection on last year's decider and Sellwood recognises Peel just didn’t fire a shot against the Sharks, and he's sure that won't be the case again on Sunday against East Perth.

"We did address last year and it definitely is that little extra fire in our belly to make sure we show up because last year we didn’t even really fire a shot," Sellwood said.

"It was a pretty poor performance from us so in that sense we want to make sure we fire a shot and bring our best to the big stage.

"It definitely brings some extra motivation in that sense but we also don't dwell on it at the same time. It's more of the motivation side that we take form last year, it's not so much thinking about what happened last year. It just drives us to make sure we give it a red hot crack."

Improving year on year as a player

Sellwood was a promising West Australian junior and then that culminated in playing a starring role in Peel's colts premiership triumph of 2022 before he moved up into senior ranks in 2023.

He was still a 19-year-old when he made his league debut last year for the Thunder and has never looked back since, playing 15 matches in his first season including the Grand Final against East Fremantle.

Sellwood has now gone up another level in the Thunder back-line in 2024 while also earning the chance to play in the WAFL State Team, and averaging 19.2 disposals a game as he prepares to play in a third straight Grand Final this Sunday.

"I don’t feel like this is a surprise in my sense for me because of all the hard work I've put in and with my own self-belief," Sellwood said.

"I've been really happy with the year that I've had and it's a credit to our coaches, and Tendai our back-line coach and Adam Read who has taken over this year.

"They have given me a bigger role this year and allowed me to show my strengths out there so I credit them for my growth 100 per cent because they've given me the chance to blossom a bit more and show what I can do. I've been really happy with the year so far, but it's not done yet."

Feeling ahead of Grand Final

Now that Peel has done it the hard way to reach a second straight Grand Final with a heart stopping win over Claremont and then dominant showing in the preliminary final against Swan Districts, Sellwood is excited for Sunday against the Royals at Optus Stadium.

"I'm feeling really, really excited and it's obviously an exciting prospect any time you get to play in a Grand Final," he said.

"It's three in-a-row for me now because I played in the colts one too so it's really exciting. Just because you've already played in any it doesn’t change how exciting how it is so I'm really keen to get into Sunday and it can't come around quick enough that's for sure."

Path to make the Grand Final

Peel was on top of the ladder the majority of the home and away season before the final round loss to East Perth to end up in second, but Sellwood did feel as though they hadn’t quite been on top of their game for some time.

That then flowed into the finals beginning with a loss in the qualifying final at home to Swan Districts and then escaping thanks to the heroics of Blair Bell in the first semi-final against Claremont to win by a point.

Then after a tough first 15 minutes conceding five goals against Swan Districts in last Sunday's preliminary final, Peel took control with 15 goals to four on the way to a 47-point victory.

That was as complete performance as Peel has put together for some time and Sellwood is glad that is the momentum they now carry with them into the Grand Final.

"We've sort of been stringing along half a good game or good quarters, but we haven’t really had that full four quarter performance for a couple of months now I would say," Sellwood said.

"So it was really, really good on the weekend to gather that form bar the first 15 minutes. It was really pleasing especially because we haven’t gone about it the way East Perth have where they won straight into the Grand Final.

"We've had to play all three finals and it's been flight or death for us the last two weeks so it has been a tougher journey, but it's exciting to get the chance now on Sunday."

Different avenues of teams to make it

Peel and East Perth now couldn’t have had more contrasting paths into Sunday's Grand Final over the past three weeks.

After the Royals beat the Thunder in that last round of the season, they earned the first week of the finals off and then beat Swan Districts in the second semi-final to earn another break coming into the Grand Final.

The path has been more gruelling for Peel after losing that qualifying final to Swans and then beating Claremont by a point in the first semi-final, and getting one back on Swan Districts in the preliminary final.

While it has been tough physically, Sellwood feels that the momentum and confidence from playing each week, and the wins over the last fortnight will hold them in good stead for the Grand Final.

"I think the only downside is the recovery part, but we've going about things pretty stock standard and we do take confidence out of the games we've played and hopefully we can string together one more good performance on Sunday," Sellwood said.

"It still just comes down to whoever shows up on the day really, I don’t think it will be a factor who has had the break and who hasn’t. It will be more decided by who shows up better on the day."

Last time playing East Perth

Looking back on that final game of the home and away season where East Perth beat Peel by 20 points to lock away top spot, Sellwood won't be reading too much into that especially considering the conditions that day at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

There were only a total of 10 goals kicked in the game and this Sunday at Optus Stadium is going to be a totally different game, at a different venue and with fine conditions which will help the running game of Peel.

"We did not play our best footy that game, it was wet weather as well and we didn’t play the conditions as well as they did," Sellwood said.

"We don’t dwell on that too much and we've moved on since then, and we feel that as a side when we play our best footy other teams can't really go with us.

"Obviously it was disappointing to not win the minor premiership, but we've reviewed that and know what we did wrong, and have moved on. We're just going into Sunday with a positive mindset."

Playing again at Optus Stadium

While Sellwood's colts premiership triumph of 2022 was when the Grand Final was held at Leederville and he played in a losing Grand Final last year at Optus Stadium and also in the State game earlier this year where WA lost, he's excited to get back out to the venue.

Peel did beat West Coast at Optus Stadium earlier this season too and Sellwood can't wait to get back there on Sunday to play after having a run with his teammates on Saturday on the deck.

"I would say the ground suits our game style as well being a bit bigger and we did play there against West Coast during the year and won that game, but obviously the last other games there for me haven’t gone our way in the last 12 months," Sellwood said.

"But we're excited to be playing there and aren’t worried about that. We've worked our way through the year and now get our opportunity to play in front of a large crowd, and it's a very exciting prospect."

Chance for fairytale for Bell

Not that you ever need any added motivation to win a Grand Final, Sellwood is hoping that Peel is able to win on Sunday to give Blair Bell the perfect farewell to a career that already has seen him play 136 games with the Thunder and enjoy two premierships.

That included just two weeks ago him kicking the most memorable of goals seconds before the siren in the heart stopping win against Claremont, and Sellwood is hoping to celebrate one more time with the 'Mayor of Mandurah'.

"Blair's a special bloke and we call him the Mayor of Mandurah for a reason. He's a really special guy and you probably can't tell, but he's one of the most humble blokes you would ever meet," Sellwood said.

"He's very down to earth and that goal was a pretty special moment. I was actually the one that brought him down afterwards and tackled him, that's how stoked I was.

"Now going into Sunday's game it would be bloody special to bring it home for him and send him out that way after he's been such a long servant of the club. He deserves every bit of success that comes his way."

Support of the Mandurah community

Sellwood can also feel the Mandurah community getting behind Peel as the Grand Final approaches and on the back of what the Mandurah Magic did to win a first ever NBL1 West championship last month, he knows how much the entire city gets behind their sporting teams.

"There's a bit of a buzz around the town this week and people do seem to come out of the woodwork at this time of year," Sellwood said.

"I get a lot of messages from people that I wouldn’t usually hear from wishing me good luck and all that, so it would definitely be exciting for the City of Mandurah to bring back a flag.

"You do notice that any time a hometown club has some success then everyone jumps on to celebrate even if they aren’t supporting that sport directly.

"It's always special for the whole community and there's definitely a buzz building this week and hopefully we can all celebrate after Sunday."

Set up for future as a young man

Considering the impressive progression of Sellwood's career from a colts premiership star in 2022, regular member of a Grand Final team in 2023, and now a star of the 2024 side back there again, it wouldn’t surprise to see him earn an AFL opportunity.

He would obviously embrace that with both hands should it eventuate, but he also isn’t putting all his eggs in that basket and is setting up the rest of his life currently undergoing his teaching studies while working as a mentor for people with disabilities.

"You see some people make footy their personality and it sort of consumes their life, but I like to think I've got a good balance between studying and social life, and then also when it comes to footy as well," Sellwood said.

"Obviously the end goal is to get drafted and if that happens then it happens, but if it doesn’t then it doesn’t. I'm not really dwelling on it too much and am controlling what I can, and I can't do much about it if anyone drafts me or not.

"I just have to keep playing the best footy I can and then if it happens it would obviously be awesome, but if it doesn’t then I've got a lot more years under my belt I can play at Peel and can build my career at the same time outside of footy."