Prized draftees Reuben Ginbey and Elijah Hewett have relished their first taste of a West Coast Eagles pre-season and are itching to get stuck into the hard work.
Hewett made his first appearance at Mineral Resources Park on Wednesday – two days after he was selected at pick No.14 in the NAB AFL Draft – and Dunsborough product Ginbey pulled on the blue and gold at training for the first time on Friday after a whirlwind week.
“It was great. It’s been a long time coming,” said Ginbey, the Eagles’ first pick at No.9 overall.
“A big few days after the draft, but it was great to finally get into the club for the first time, meet the boys and kick the legs in and have a bit of a jog around.”
The pair of first-round selections are already close mates from their days as WA under-18s teammates and are eager to get into the full training workload as soon as possible, with Eagles strength and conditioning staff carefully managing their programs.
“It does look pretty appetising all the boys getting into tackling already and the hard-running and that kind of thing,” Ginbey said.
“I guess we’ve got to trust the process. They’re professionals and they know what they’re doing so easing us into it but I’m sure that’s going to ramp up in the next couple of weeks.”
Hewett was at home with family watching the draft unfold when coach Adam Simpson called to let him know he was about to become an Eagle, and the 18-year-old has been at MRP every day since Wednesday.
“It’s been a great few days. I came on Wednesday and I was fortunate enough to come early enough in the year (to train as part of the AFL Academy), so I already knew the facility quite well,” Hewett said.
“It was a completely different feel now being an Eagle. It’s an amazing feeling and I feel more part of the family, which is great. It’s going to be a hectic few months, but I’m so excited to crack on along with Reuben and our other draftees.
“We’re itching the skin. Me and Reubs were talking about it today. You see all the other boys training and you just have to kind of hold the reins. But we understand and trust the performance coaches on what they’ve got us doing and we understand the loading requirements.”
Like Ginbey, who added 15kg to his broad-shouldered frame in the past two years, Hewett enters the elite level with experience of playing against men and the talented duo are keen to impress ahead of their debut seasons.
“That’s every player’s goal is to play as early as possible. I’m just trying to focus and hone in on the next couple of weeks and nail that and go step-by-step,” Hewett said.
“It’s definitely not something I’m going to shy away from – I’m going to try and put my hand up (to play) as early as possible.”
Ginbey has been assigned Dom Sheed and Campbell Chesser as mentors, with the latter part of the exciting group of talented players West Coast has drafted over the past two years.
The Eagles brought in seven youngsters this week, including Naitanui Academy products Tyrell Dewar and Jordyn Baker, who also trained for the first time on Friday.
Twelve months ago, West Coast added promising players Brady Hough, Rhett Bazzo, Jack Williams, Greg Clark and mid-season rookie Jai Culley - as well as exciting yet-to-debut top pick Chesser - as the squad's list transition gathered pace.
“It’s really exciting seeing obviously we’ve drafted a lot of new young boys this year and last year,” Ginbey said.
“It feels like we’ve got a real strong core group of young people. It feels like we can really build something exciting and grow together and learn together in the oncoming years.”
