WEST Coast recruit Jack Graham is hoping a fresh start at the Eagles can help him take his game to a new level as he looks to play a hard-running midfield role in 2025 that complements the Eagles' explosive onballers.
Graham, who crossed to the Eagles as an unrestricted free agent, has made an impressive start to his time at the club since arriving three weeks ago and set the standard by winning the first running test of the summer for the full squad.
The dual premiership Tiger said he hoped to improve himself as a player while using his ability to get from contest to contest to support young star Harley Reid, premiership jet Elliot Yeo, and club champion Tim Kelly.
"I can play forward and midfield, so I'm sure there'll be a bit of a balance between that, but ideally in the midfield with my transition running, that's probably my biggest strength," Graham said on Wednesday.
"We've got a lot of explosive mids in there with 'Yeoy' and Harley Reid … so I might have to chop in there every now and then and help out with the transitioning running. I'm happy to put my hand up for that.
"I'm looking forward to it, whatever I can bring with my leadership to help the younger boys, and also learn off the older guys."
Graham finished runner-up in the Tigers' best and fairest in 2021 and won premierships in 2017 and 2020, but the 26-year-old was set on growing further as a player after seeking a new challenge at West Coast.
"I just thought that where I am in my career, something new is kind of what I need to ramp things up again," he said.
"So when this talk started happening, I was really excited by it and thought, 'Why not, why not give it a go'.
"I feel like I can still take my game to the next level. I'm only 26, 27 in Feb, so I still feel like there's a lot of potential and I can push myself to get the best out of me, and also my new teammates."
Graham had a close relationship with Andrew McQualter, given both were heavily involved in the club's recent premiership era, with the new coach setting up a game plan and culture that had familiar elements.
"He's a great people person and he's got a good balance of being a coach, but also being a mate," Graham said.
"He'll bring in a great culture where we can all trust each other, good chemistry on-and-off the field, and just a really fast, attacking brand of football, which is going to be exciting for our fans.
"Some of the terminology and the words are similar, but he's obviously gone to Melbourne for that year, and I'm sure learned things that he's going to bring in.
"So even though we do know a little bit of the game plan from being under him when he was coaching at Richmond, there's still a lot of new stuff and exciting stuff that we're very keen to learn about."
