The road to 100 Peter Jackson VFL games has been a long and difficult one for Williamstown vice-captain Cameron Lockwood.
“There’s been more talk about the amount of games I’ve missed than the amount of games I’ve played,” Lockwood admitted.
The 26-year-old showed his talent in 2013 by winning the Seagulls’ best-and-fairest award as a small defender-cum-midfielder, but has all too often been cut down by injury.
Lockwood estimates he has missed around 50 or 60 weeks of football across a nine-year career with Williamstown, listing a double hip surgery, two hamstring injuries, bad ankles, foot stress fractures and a broken foot among his many ailments.
But he never doubted he’d eventually reach the 100-game milestone, as far away as it must have seemed at times.
“I didn’t necessarily think I wouldn’t get there, it was just a matter of when,” Lockwood said.
“It didn’t really enter the forefront of my mind until I knew I was going to play my 100th game last year but then broke my foot mid-way through the season and missed 12 games.”
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Lockwood is still dealing with the niggling foot injury in 2015, as he endures a disjointed start to the season in which he has struggled to string games together.
He’s confident that this Sunday’s clash with Footscray at VU Whitten Oval can kick off a return to his form of 2013 and the early part of 2014.
“I’d say 2013 was probably my best consistent year of football,” Lockwood said. “But I’d nearly say my first half of last year was the same, if not better, than that year.
“I got to play for Victoria (in a 22-point loss to a SANFL representative team) and it was about two weeks after that when I broke my foot.”
Consistency in playing and training is clearly a key for Lockwood, but something that’s never been an issue is geographical consistency.
The Footscray-born Lockwood played his junior football at Williamstown before winning two best-and-fairest awards in his time with the Western Jets in the TAC Cup and then returning to play with Williamstown in the VFL.
There have been chances to move elsewhere given the strength of the Seagulls squad over a period of time, but Lockwood simply loves the region he has always called home.
“I didn’t really care about going to a club where there was a bit more opportunity than Willy had to offer; I just wanted to play at the highest level I could play at Willy,” he said.
Hopefully for Lockwood, he can do that with increased regularity during the next stage of his VFL career.'
Listen below to a full interview with Lockwood as part of our VFL in Focus podcast.
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Last Modified on 03/06/2015 12:39