Rising Claremont midfielder Ryley Valli says it was a special moment to play with four of his Great Southern teammates in their 35-point WAFL colts win over East Fremantle on Saturday.
Valli, who played with Railways and Royals, has been in superb form in the early stages of the year and collected 31 touches to go with seven tackles, eight inside-50s and a goal in the 10.12 (72) to 5.7 (37) round-seven triumph.
Ryan Lazar (Royals), Seb Ballard (Mt Barker), Clay Michael (Railways) and Lucas Ravenhill (North Albany) were also part of the Great Southern contingent. “It was pretty special to play with all those boys,” Valli said.
“It’s a good achievement that five Great Southern boys can make the team.
“I’ve played a bit of carnival footy with them so it makes you feel a lot more confident with them around you.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing at Claremont this year.
“It’s good to come up here and test yourself against some of the best players in WA and see where you’re at.”
The 18-year-old, who played in Railways’ premiership triumph last season, said a hunger to start games strongly had been a catalyst for his early-season form.
“I think it’s been my starts in the last couple of games where I’ve had good first halves which gets me into the game,” he said.
“Getting early tackles and clearances have helped me to start well.
“I’ve also been doing some swimming on my off nights to help with strengthening my endurance to run out games.
“The goal is just to keep playing consistent footy, hopefully go deep into the finals and play at Optus, which would be special
— just to keep improving my game and see how far I can go with it.”
Valli’s performance earned him Streamer’s WAFL player of the round honours.
Streamer is a local sports streaming platform, covering a vast array of footy game including WAFL colts.
In the Great Southern Football League this weekend, Albany will be out to keep their undefeated status alive when they square off with Royals in the Retravision Stadium derby.
The match will start at the earlier time of 1pm.
Meanwhile, Railways will clash with Mt Barker at Tigerland and Denmark-Walpole will face off with North Albany at McLean Park at 2.30pm.
All games will be played on Saturday.