SYDNEY young gun Chad Warner spent several months in Perth in a "once-in-a-lifetime" pre-season and he's excited to be back again with the Swans to face West Coast at Optus Stadium on Good Friday.
East Fremantle product Warner, along with his younger brother Corey, Angus Sheldrick and Logan McDonald all spent two months of their pre-season away from the Swans in Perth due to WA border rules.
It was a unique situation for the West Australian quartet who were able to spend the first half of pre-season, including Christmas, with family and friends, before flying to link up with the Swans squad in mid-January.
"I actually loved it," 20-year-old Warner said about his third pre-season since joining the Swans as pick 39 in the 2019 AFL Draft.
"We went down to the (WAFL club) Claremont Tigers and used their facilities. They were amazing for us. We pretty much did all our pre-season training there while the boys were out at lakeside training.
"It was probably a once in a lifetime thing that happened. Big thanks to the Tigers for that."
PLAY AFL FANTASY Make your trades NOW
The unusual preparation hasn’t slowed Warner who missed round one after entering health and safety protocols before averaging 21.3 disposals per game including 2.3 clearances and four inside 50s along with 4.7 tackles this season.
It is only a three-game sample size, but Warner's possession numbers are up on his 2021 average of 16.6 per game and the youngster explained his improvement has come from working on his two-way running, helped by a good pre-season.
"The biggest thing for me is my defensive transition two way running," he said.
"From last year, I've made a massive improvement on that which is great.
"That's the main thing we (Warner and Swans assistant coach Dean Cox) look at when we do our review with each other.
"He makes sure I'm having the most metres I can running defensively and putting teams to the sword offensively with my bursts and power, using my legs through the stoppage.
"That's my strength at the moment, being able to break a tackle and go forward with it."
Among Warner's 12 inside 50s this season is arguably the most famous of the year, his pass to Lance Franklin for his 1000th goal in round two against Geelong, which the 20-year-old called his career highlight so far.
"I reckon at the moment it's definitely the biggest thing to happen in my career" Warner said.
"Watching him since I was a young boy, since I can remember, to be able to kick it to him doesn’t still feel real now. At the time it didn’t feel real at all.
"A couple of days later a lot of people asked me how to describe it, but there's no way to describe it. He's an amazing player and guy off the field. Couldn’t ask for anything better."
