Sharrod Wellingham used his team’s Friday night clash with the Indigenous All Stars to silence his critics and reaffirm the faith of his coaches.
After two injury-interrupted seasons at West Coast, following five years at Collingwood, many believed that Wellingham had failed to live up to expectations, but his performance on Friday proved that the midfielder is ready to bounce back.
The 26-year-old starred against the All Stars, kicking a goal in the first quarter, and using his influence in the second half to propel his team to victory.
Wellingham ready to repay the faith
Wellingham told ABC’s Francis Leach that it had felt good to blow the cobwebs out after a long pre-season.
“As you can imagine, the Indigenous All Stars team were a very, very fast team who tried to take the game on and they did that from the word go and I think we were quite lucky to be able to stem that run when we could and slow them up which was one of our main focuses,” Wellingham said.
“I suppose the game probably would have looked a bit sloppy at some stages, being the first hit-out for the year, but the boys will take some confidence in that we were able to apply some of our tactical stuff which we worked on over summer and great to get away with a win.”
The midfielder had been impressed with the performances of his young teammates, particularly rookie-listed Rowen Powell and 18-year-old Tom Lamb who scored late goals to put the Eagles in front.
“They both did really well,” Wellingham said.
“Ro-Po [Powell] won’t wipe that smile off his face for the rest of the week and Lamby’s goal was very impressive.
“They both wished that had have been out there a bit earlier, but they came on and made an immediate impact which was really, really good.”
West Coast continues its pre-season campaign with a match against Carlton this Friday afternoon in Mandurah.
