Brendon Ah Chee has lived most of his football life on the edge.
Apart from the two-year deal he secured after being drafted to Port Adelaide with pick No.45 in the 2011 AFL Draft, the now 26-year-old has signed one-year contract for the past eight years.
So, in many ways, he was better equipped than most to wait for a deal while clubs sought clarity on total player payments, list sizes and more following a turbulent 2020 season.
But that doesn’t mean it was easy for the versatile Ah Chee, who penned his new 12-month agreement with West Coast on Wednesday.
“The club has been really good about it,” Ah Chee told 6PR’s Sportsday WA program.
“A lot of it was outside their control to be honest. There was a lot of uncertainty and I don’t envy Darren Glass in his first year of being list manager and what he had to go through with this kind of stuff.
“It will make it a whole 10 years that I’ve been in the AFL, so I’m very happy and very relieved to still have a job at the club.”
Ah Chee had the most productive season of his career in 2020, playing 15 of a possible 18 games.
He achieved that following a frank pre-season chat with Adam Simpson, who suggested he would be better served targeting a spot in the Eagles’ forward line rather than the midfield.
The South Fremantle product expected to continue down that path when he resumed training at the club in January.
“I still love the midfield; that’s what I did for the first 25 years of my life and then I had the old switcheroo going forward this year,” Ah Chee said.
“But it’s not really about where I want to play, it’s what Simmo and the coaching staff want. That’s what I had to do this year and I played more games than I have ever played in a year.
“I still have to have these conversations with the coaches, but I assume that I’ll be forward again. Just to be able to learn off JK (Josh Kennedy) and Jack Darling, even probably more specifically Jamie Cripps, the way he plays that high half-forward role is probably the best in the competition.
“If I can continue to learn off him and go forward in the pre-season with that then I’m pretty excited to do that.”
