Keunen continues to fight through obstacles all the way to 200

NOTHING West Perth ruckman Chris Keunen has earned over his 200-game WAFL career has come easy, and someone with less strength of character or maybe a less motivating wife, might have given up along the way but that only makes the milestone all the more meaningful now.

Keunen arrived as a tall, athletic and mobile ruckman from Victoria to West Perth ahead of the 2006 WAFL season initially on the recruiting of coach Darren Harris, who soon made way for Todd Curley ahead of that 2006 season to join the West Coast Eagles.

Immediately Keunen appeared to have all the tools to be a premier ruckman in the WAFL, but those early years were marred by him being stuck behind the likes of Robert Warnock, Mark Seaby and even at times Mitch Andrews in the pecking order.

Keunen played 67 league games over those first five years and there were some moments he thought he might be better served elsewhere, but once he got his crack as No. 1 ruckman in 2011 he never looked back.

Over that period of 2011 through to the end of 2015, Keunen cemented himself as one of the very best and most consistent ruckmen in the WAFL and was instrumental in West Perth reaching two Grand Finals, winning a premiership and he played State football and earned life membership.

But his journey seems as though it was never meant to be easy. The past two years for Keunen have been marred by injury and then he’s been at times overlooked at selection even when it’s been bewildering including the first semi-final against Peel in 2016.

But to his everlasting credit, Keunen has stuck to his guns, not given in and now once again he is the clear No. 1 ruckman at West Perth in 2018, is right back to the form he showed in those peak years of his career and the 34-year-old now will celebrate game 200 on Saturday against South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

While Keunen has actually already played his 200th game for West Perth and qualified for the 200 Club, it’s this Saturday that the club decided to celebrate the milestone for one of the more deserving players to have reached the double century.

It’s a richly deserved milestone considering the hurdles he’s overcome along the way having had to wait patiently to becomeNo. 1 ruckman, then deal with a broken leg, toe and finger in recent years on top of not always being in favour at the selection table.

He is understandably proud of the 200-game milestone, whether it was a few weeks back or this Saturday is irrelevant in the bigger picture, and not only is he proud to get there, but he hopes West Perth can make a real statement and snap a seven-game losing run against South Fremantle.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs, especially the last few years with injuries and stuff. It’s just the next box that I wanted to tick off when you start to look at the things you can possibly achieve as your career goes on,” Keunen said.

“This ticks off that next box and I found out I’m going to be inducted into the 200-club and I probably don’t feel worthy of being part of that compared to some of the other names part of that. But it is something special to be included in something as prestigious as that so it’s a huge honour.

“I’m just looking forward to getting it done now. It’s almost like another game even though I’ve tried to enjoy the build up with a bit more focus on myself which is something I try to avoid as much as I can.

“It has been nice to soak it up and it’s a big game for us a team to try and get a break in that second spot. This is also the side that has been a bogey for us and need to get it off our back to have that mental edge before coming up against them in the finals. I’m excited to get out there and have a crack at it.”

While Keunen had an outstanding run for five straight years from 2011 through 2015, there’s every chance that this 2018 season is his most satisfying simply because there were times the last two years where he thought his career might have been done, and he felt he might have been written off.