As if there haven’t been enough side-plots to recent Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles encounters, when the two teams meet on Saturday evening at Patersons Stadium (Subiaco) two good friends will come across each other in the heat of the midfield battle.
2010 AFL Rising Star recipient Daniel Hannebery formed a strong friendship with the Eagles’ Luke Shuey - the round 2 nomination for the 2011 Rising Star - during their TAC Cup days at the Oakleigh Chargers in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Hannebery says he is unsure whether he will line-up directly on Shuey, but is looking forward to the prospect of being in the clinches against him at some stage.
“He plays in the midfield, so I’m not too sure (whether I will come up against him),” Hannebery said.
“I’ve been playing more of an inside-outside (midfield) role, so I’m sure I might come across him at some stage, but that’ll be good because I haven’t really played against him before.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully knocking him off.”
Hannebery identified Shuey as one of the League’s young starlets who can challenge for the Rising Star this year - along with a couple of Swans youngsters in Sam Reid and Gary Rohan - especially now that Shuey has recovered from several injuries that plagued him at the beginning of his career.
“He’s a really good fella and he’s going to be a really good player,” Hannebery said about the Eagles’ midfielder.
“He’s finally been injury free this pre-season which has been good for him, because he’s had a pretty unlucky ride lately.
“(From our side) Sammy Reid’s on fire at the moment, he took a few big marks on the weekend - big buckets - and Gary Rohan, the redheaded rooster, is on a bit of fire at the moment as well, so I can see him running down the wing this weekend.”
After securing the maximum three Brownlow Medal votes in his last appearance at Subiaco, against Fremantle in round 20 last year, Hannebery said the dimensions of the ground suited his and the team’s style of contested football mixed with a preparedness to run and break the lines.
“I think as a side we want to do some really good thing inside, but then we also want to be able to work hard and run on the outside as well,” he said.
“It’s important that our work rate is really high this weekend - like every week - but we’re going to have to be prepared to run and bring up the same effort as we did last week.
“Bigger ground, travelling, it’s really important that we get our preparation right over the next few days, and if we do that we’ll go a long way.”
