Williamstown’s Sean Hetherington is relishing the chance to play consistent senior football in the Peter Jackson VFL after two breakthrough finals appearances for the Seagulls last year.
Now into his third season at VFL level, the 20-year-old out of Rupertswood said his selection for September stoushes with Werribee in a semi final and the Box Hill Hawks in a preliminary final may have helped him turn a corner.
Hetherington found himself going back and forth between Williamstown’s strong senior team and its Development League squad during his first two years with the club.
The 178cm wingman played 13 senior matches and 26 Development League matches across those seasons, having emerged from the Calder Cannons TAC Cup program with a second placing in the club’s 2012 best-and-fairest award.
But since earning his spot in the Seagulls’ final two matches of 2014, the former Cannon has strung together seven consecutive senior games from Round 2 this year.
“Playing in the finals last year has definitely helped me this year,” Hetherington said.
“It gave me confidence knowing I’m at that level.”
Hetherington isn’t yet completely confident that he’s secured his spot in the top-placed Williamstown side, but knows his position becomes stronger with each match he plays.
“By playing seniors every week, it means I’m building friendships and trust in the other senior players,” Hetherington said.
One of them is former Port Adelaide AFL player Mitch Banner, who Hetherington is looking up to as he comes to grips with a new role on the wing.
Hetherington previously played most of his football as an inside midfielder or half forward, but a wealth of strong bodies in the Seagulls’ centre square means coach Andrew Collins wants him to fit in elsewhere.
“At the start it was a bit of a challenge, a bit of an unknown area,” Hetherington said.
“But now that I’ve consistently played a few games (in the seniors), having teammates like Mitch Banner in that position and looking over their vision has helped me become a better wingman.
“I’ll continue to look over Mitch’s games to hopefully become a player of his stature.”
Hetherington said he hopes to one day balance his new outside role with playing on the inside of the contest as he has done previously – and he has no lack of role models at Williamstown in that domain either, with the likes of Seagulls captain Ben Jolley making the centre square his own at Burbank Oval.
Hetherington himself has recently become a role model as an Ambassador for the VicHealth H30 Challenge, a campaign encouraging Victorians to replace every sugary drink they would normally drink with water for 30 days.
He has been spreading the word about the benefits of switching to water instead of energy drinks, sports drinks, soft drinks and fruit drinks through his family, friends and Twitter followers.
“I’ve never really been a big soft drink drinker in the past, so when the initiative came up, it was easy for me to get on board and go on with drinking water.”
Join the H3O Challenge here: www.h30challenge.com.au
Last Modified on 01/07/2015 15:13