FIRSTLY let me just say I love how this media gig works, one decent game and a good win and I get a call up for a column. Love it. Luckily for me I have had one drafted up for a few months ready to go for this exact occasion.

I have been coming through the doors at Wally Hagan every week one way or another (Junior/WABL/Domestic/SBL) for about 28 years. It certainly is home for me, it is where I grew up, it's where the heart is, it's where the heart has always been.

I didn’t grow up with Andrew Gaze and Michael Jordan as my heroes, mine were Al Erikson and Kelly Huston. A good Friday night for me was a handful of lollies, a toasted ham cheese & tomato sandwich and hanging around in Al’s card shop. If I had done my chores for that week Mum will get me a pack of cards (not Upper Deck as they were too expensive so usually the Hoops or the Fleer), then all the big kids would rip me off in trades and it will always end in tears.

Let's call a spade a spade, I was never going to play NBL, I was never going to college, so for me playing SBL for Cockburn was what It was all about. Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of love out there for the lean back jump shot and I was doing the Euro step before it was even a thing, except I just didn't change direction!

I stopped WABL after Rod Baker left me out of the touring team when I was 13, I held a grudge for seven years before former SBL MVP Justin Lyons got me back down to U/23s. I then played with unreal bunch of guys in u/23s for a couple years, we were really just a bunch of misfits and knockabout lads having a blast. We won a title, then I moved on to SBL.

Some of the greatest times of my life were down at that stadium and not just as a kid in his PJs watching his Dad play and eating ice cream and lollies. The years from 2005-2008 we had such an amazing group of guys (talented too) and we were a brotherhood, lifelong mates. Anyone down there during these years would agree!!

The girls' team were just the same and we were all around the same age, close buddies and we had one hell of a ride together, lifelong stories, memories and friendships.

After games we would head out into town 20 deep of Cougar and Cougarettes some good times were had at the old Metros (The rookies and young guns now call it 'The big house'???). Every now and then we would convince Turbo (Troy Clarke) to come out use a few of his bar cards, put them all together and have a night out on the Midori Illusion shakers.

We also had a lot of success back in those days a lot of times without imports just us local kids making the 2003 Grand Final, and semi-final exits from 2004-2008. You don’t realise how quickly things can change, you go from playing your first eight seasons with a worst finish of a semi-final, to not playing finals at all for the next four.

That’s the game!

I took a call from Matt Parsons at the back end of 2015, this was just after a very tough year at Mandurah after we started so promising only to lose 10 of the last 12 games to finish ninth and miss the finals by percentage. I had just moved back into Cockburn area and I knew after two minutes of speaking to Matt that I desperately wanted to be back at the Den. I wanted to finish where I started, I wanted to come home.
I, of course, didn’t tell him this as I knew there was still some hurdles to jump and a very tough conversation to be had with the one and only Shannon Klasztorny.

I loved my time at Mandurah, the club, the board, the players and the supporters were fantastic.
Getting to play with two of my closest mates with my brother Brendon and Trent Gerovich was an added bonus. But of course the best thing to come out of Mandurah by far was meeting my partner Shan!

Shan's family are heavily involved with Mandurah on all levels Board/WABL/Coaches/WSBL/MSBL.
WSBL players Bree and Emma, Taylor playing MSBL, Mel on the board, the boys in WABL, Marie a bit of an all-rounder, and Rob offering his 'support' from the stands. So it was always going to be a tough conversation, I guess it sort of went as I thought it would, how it usually goes with these things.

I plead my case, Shan pretends to listen, Shan shoots me down. No good.

So after a few more discussions and her threatening to leave me a few times she gradually warmed to the idea (with a lot of help from her Sisters Bree and Emma)

So I basically I went to Mandurah, got the girl and I was coming home. It was a win-win.

I was a little nervous heading back to Cockburn. Even though there was a lot of old faces still there, it was a strange feeling. How do you describe to these guys that you love the club as much as they do even though you were away for seven years, how is that even possible?

I still feel like no one loves the club like I do, I don’t know why but that’s just how I felt, which seems insane for someone that was gone seven years but that’s just how It was. I guess you hope every single person feels that way, that’s the environment you want to be in!!

There was still a lot of familiar faces down at the Den. DT was returning (he played a large part in getting me back too), Alex Prince was back, I had played with Sheldon, Bobby and Stevie before.
I passed Stevie his first ever points, a game against Wanneroo, I bet he doesn’t even remember. But I do.

Pete Stanley was still holding down the fort as team manager and all round club legend! He was the first guy to embrace me as I walked in the door at the first session. Pete does so much for this club you would need another article to cover it. When I look at Pete I see Mr Cockburn. Simple as that to me, he is Cockburn.

The rest of the crew I knew from domestic comps and generally around the traps. So transition was pretty smooth. First pre-season session had me question my judgement. There was no one over the age of 24 at that first session, I kept thinking I can’t let these young guns show me up. At the end I just settled for not finishing last, I thought I was running with bloody greyhounds!!!

The 2016 season has been a whole lot of fun for me, how can it not be after finishing minor premiers and sitting one win away from a Grand Final appearance. After 300-plus games and 15 pre-seasons you don’t need to tell me how hard it is to get to a Grand Final…….as I'm still waiting.

We had our fair share of injuries like everyone else this year, I thought when we lost DT, Sheldon, Princey and Gavin all at same time that our luck would surely turn. We did finally get them all back but then you got the news no one wanted to hear. I will be honest when I found out Bobby was done for the year I went looking for the cat, Jimmy must have sensed something was wrong and luckily for him he took off.

Selfishly the first thing I thought about was "Oh now the dream just got a whole lot harder, this sucks, why us, why now" and a few other words I’m not able to print. Then your thoughts quickly turn to Bobby, he must be hurting like hell. The poor bloke is Cockburn through and through, the captain of the club and he bleads yellow and blue.

He has just been ruled out for the year, he won't be able to lead his team to the finals and is heading in for surgery and a six-month recovery awaits. Bobby would do anything for the club, he is the best Australian player in the league (runner-up league MVP) and he doesn’t get one cent for playing for this club. That loyalty is unheard of these days but that’s how much the club means to him.

One other guy who I have really enjoyed playing with this year is Sheldon McIntyre. I would go as far as to say he is our most important player. He may be the oldest 28-year-old I've ever seen, but what he brings to the team just can’t be measured. Not only does he have an elite basketball IQ, he gets the biggest defensive jobs every week guarding positions 1-4, then when an opposition player gets hot we just handle him over to Sheldon.

I've done that a few times this year to him haha. We all walk taller when he is on the court. He reminds me of Cockburn Cougar great Robbie Plaucs a former 261-game player, team MVP and life member. I played 144 games with Robbie and I loved everything about the guy. They are mirror images the way they go about it and for mine Sheldon sits more than comfortably when mentioned alongside Robbie.

The game on the weekend was absolutely amazing, one for the ages and one of the best wins I have been a part of considering what was at stake. The Geraldton players are certainly privileged to play in front of the sort of crowd every second week. When the scores were level with a minute to play the place was electric.

This is why you love the game so much, after all this time you still get chills walking out there and experiencing that. It will never get old. We were lucky enough to have about 40 of our supporters travel up for the game, including the girls team which we really appreciated. They all sat right above our bench and it certainly gave the boys a lift and were easily holding their own with the decibel counts.

The game itself was a fantastic outcome for our club, to go up there on their home deck and get an away win is a huge result for us. As we all know the job is only half done, we will need to bring everything we brought Saturday plus some more if we are going to clinch this series.

I have tremendous respect for the Buccs as a team and organisation. They have a super talented team with Adekponya, Cook, Barrows, Ralph, Wundenberg and Hussey so they certainly create a lot of headaches for us.

Wunders and Cook are always fun to play against, they play as hard as anyone in the league leaving it all out there every time and play every possession. It does get heated at times, little bit of talk and niggle now and then but at the end of the game it’s always a handshake and a cold beer. That’s how it should be done.

I'm 35 next month and I still love the game as much as I did when I first started. I love coming to training, still get butterflies before the big games, love the anticipation of the game and love the fact you don’t know what’s going to happen over the next 48 minutes. I love it all.

One thing that alludes me and I so desperately crave is a championship. If winning a Grand Final was simply about "wanting it the most" or "wanting it more" I would have a handful. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that, sometimes the best teams don’t even win, you need a lot to go right, you need some luck. After 15 years I know this as fact.

For the time being we are just going to enjoy staying in the moment, we don’t think too far ahead, we don’t get too excited, things can change too quickly. If we can go to Geraldton and win on their home floor, it’s just as easy for them to come in here and do the same to us.

We respect everyone, but we fear no one.

We know we have a huge challenge that awaits us Saturday night, we will need to be at our absolute best. We will be back home, with our loyal supporters, the best fans in the league, and we will do what we always aim to do. Give everything for our club, make our supporters proud and leave it all out on the floor.

Then when it’s all said and done and I have nothing more to give, I can walk back into Wally Hagan, I can grab a toasted ham, cheese & tomato sandwich, a bag of lollies and go sit above Al’s old card shop and have a cold beer with lifelong mates.