Swifts Brett Hargreaves returned to the Baggies in 2019 and is eyeing off the feeling of the 2014 premiership once more.
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Hargreaves moved away from the area in 2013, playing for Lindenow in Gippsland, only to return in 2014 and again at the start of this season.
"I only played a part of a season with Lindenow in 2013 and during the 2014 season on one of my many trips back home I caught up with some people around the Swifts," he said.
"On the field, they weren't travelling too bad - they had a lot of good players and I thought at that time if there ever was an opportunity to play in a premiership it was now.
"I hadn't fully committed to Lindenow and I expressed my interest in coming back and hopefully adding something to the team which could help get them over the line.
"To this day, the memory of that premiership still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up."
Hargreaves recalls his junior playing years weren't full of highlights.
"I began playing for the Bulldogs in the under-13 competition and then started at the Warriors in under-14's," he said.
"From there I moved across to Swifts to play under-16's and went back to the Warriors to play one more year of juniors.
"My junior experience in football wasn't a great one. I wasn't by far a standout player, I just played in some good sides. It was a real highlight if I got named the fourth or fifth best maybe once or twice a year.
"I would even go as far as saying even getting more than a few kicks a game was great. I wasn't a natural athlete or athletic. I guess I just played football because all my friends did."
A cricket injury put a stop to Hargreaves' football career, sidelining him for more than 12 months as a 17-year-old.
"It was at the start of pre-season for cricket and I fractured my back bowling," he said.
"That was at the end of 2006. I sat out from all sport until the start of 2008 when I started pre-season at the Swifts.
"That was the year I played my senior game for the club. I played full back and at that stage, we were a struggling team."
Hargreaves said receiving the phone call to be awarded a senior game was a real eye-opener about the possibilities of the sport for him.
"I got a chill when I received the phone call from Jamie Britton," he said.
"I thought how good is this, an 18-year-old scrawny kid getting a go in a senior game.
"In my second year of seniors, I was put into the ruck to have a go. I had never played ruck before and I found when I was jumping I was winning most of the taps.
"I had no idea what I was doing but could jump over most people."
While at university, Hargreaves played with Learmonth and succumbed to a bad knee injury.
"It was far too cold for me to play down there," he joked.
"The season didn't really amount to much personally because of the injury but I was playing in a very strong league.
"It certainly was a different style of football and I would say it was a season, despite the injury, which really helped my career.
"I got really fit that year and worked out how fit I needed to be to actually run out a whole game."
Upon returning to the Baggies for the next season, Hargreaves said it was then when everything really clicked for him.
"That was the year I won the best and fairest," he said.
"It was surreal. I never thought of myself as a good player - so to actually do it, was amazing. I consider having your name up on the board a pretty big thing.
"We had some great players in our team that year and I think I was just the most consistent.
"I was probably fortunate some of our star players had interrupted seasons although I did work pretty hard on my fitness and game."
Hargreaves said he was fortunate to taste success and play with some very "handy footballers" while at Lindenow.
"We played in a losing grand final in 2015 and they won a flag when I was overseas in 2016," he said.
"In 2017 we won another flag and I won the best and fairest that year too."
The tall ruckman, who said he wasn't born a natural athlete, struggled to find his feet back into the club which he called home during the start of the 2019 season.
As anticipation grew and talk around the region got stronger of his return, Hargreaves said he was nervous before his first game back at the Baggies.
"It happens to a lot of footballers, but as the rumours grow your reputation proceeds you," he said.
"I've only ever seen myself as an OK footballer - it's all I've ever thought myself to be.
"But then you hear the rumours and the expectations of winning best and fairests and booting five goals off your own boot and winning games.
"It's never been my style. I've never been a match-winner which is no surprise to blokes who know me."
Hargreaves said he had multiple discussions with his partner Brooke about the possibility of moving back to the region they both called home.
"The lure of family and being closer to them was a big drawcard. When a job presented itself we thought if it was ever the right time to come back, it was now," he said.
"It's been completely different coming back into the club. I'm one of the older boys now. I think I have to be more of a role model. I can see myself, at a younger age, in the younger players around the club."
Concentrating on training smarter, not harder, the 29-year-old said his experience during his career lead him to fine-tune his training.
"My body is holding up pretty, well considering my age," he said.
"I go to the gym three times a week and football training twice a week.
"The intensity is still there with my training, but it's all about being a lot smarter. It's about concentrating on keeping up your strength up as much as you can."
Looking ahead to what life after football could entail, Hargreaves said he loved the sport so much he couldn't see himself not being part of it.
"I am part of the leadership group this year and it's something I feel privileged to be in," he said.
"I have thought about moving into a coaching role one day. I love the sport so much and would love to give back to the sport.
"I get so much excitement out of the game. I spend all week thinking about football. Although it's less of a focus now, when I was younger everything I did was revolved around football - what I was eating, how much I was sleeping.
"For me the game is about the team relying on you to be the best you can be when you are needed."
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