Saunders and Bulldogs aim to finish strongly

REIGNING Bernie Naylor Medallist Ben Saunders is just starting to strike form after a horror injury run in 2013 but is focused on helping South Fremantle finish off the season strongly over the final three weeks.

Saunders kicked 66 goals in his first season with South Fremantle in 2012 after crossing from Claremont and started 2013 brightly with two goals against his former team at Claremont Oval in Round 1, but then he went down with a broken collarbone.

The 21-year-old worked hard to return in Round 9 against Peel at Fremantle Oval and while he kicked three goals and South Fremantle won its first game of the season over the Thunder, Saunders again broke the same collarbone to put him back on the sidelines.

This time it took until Round 18 against West Perth at Arena Joondalup for him to return and he again kicked three goals as South Fremantle beat the Falcons impressively by 39 points.

Saunders then kicked two in the disappointing derby loss to East Fremantle before pulling off a season-best six goals in an eight-point win over Subiaco at Leederville’s Medibank Stadium ahead of last weekend’s bye.

The Bulldogs now finish the season against Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium, East Perth at Fremantle Oval and Perth at Brownes Stadium.

For Saunders it’s disappointing there is only three weeks to go as he’s now just warming into the season, but he is hoping he can help the Bulldogs finish off what has been a tough year strongly.

“These last three games are really important for us going into next year. To get these last three under the belt would be great and we would probably take two of them, but we really want to finish well,” Saunders said.

“Before that the boys will try to freshen up, but I feel like I have just come back into it and my year is going to be over in three games time. For now, I’m excited for the rest of the season and then I’ll set my sights on next year.”

Saunders hasn’t been allowed to ease his way back into his return either coming up against Michael Pettigrew with West Perth, Steven Dodd with East Fremantle and Darren Rumble from Subiaco as opponents the last three weeks, but he does feel his touch is now starting to return.

“They are all good players too and proven players in the competition, and pretty hard to play against especially on the way back I wouldn’t have minded an easier opponent. You get what you are given, though, and just have to make the most of it,” he said.

“It definitely does take a while. Especially that first game I played coming back from injury the second time I was terrible up against West Perth. I was flying and landing, and then attempting to mark by the time the ball arrived but those are the types of things you can’t train for. It’s just all about getting back into it and then two or three games later you start to find some form again.”

“It has been an extremely frustrating year. I’m a very active person and work full-time, and I like to dive fully into everything I do so the first time I did the injury I was out for five weeks and couldn’t do anything at all,” Saunders said.Saunders can’t help but be frustrated about how his 2013 season has panned out coming off his brilliant personal 2012 year where he was the league’s leading goalkicker. It made it even harder when the team was struggling, but Saunders has just tried to keep as positive as he can.