DUNSBOROUGH boy and AFL premiership player Ben Stratton said he loved watching the media talk up Fremantle Dockers in the lead up to the grand final.
Ben brought six of his teammates to parent’s home in Dunsborough last week and spoke with the Busselton-Dunsborough Mail about the most hectic two weeks of his life.
“It’s been a blur really, we have had no time sit back and reflect on what happened,” he said.
Despite the celebrations of winning a grand final being blurry he said he remembered every moment of the game.
“I remember nothing about last year’s game, but this one I have replayed it over and over,” he said.
The contrast between losing the grand final in 2012 and winning in 2013 was huge Ben said.
“Clarko always tells us you have to lose one to win one, that’s why I think our pre-season was so good this year, we were all so motivated,” he said.
After Fremantle’s big wins against Geelong and Sydney to win their spot into the grand final, Ben said it did not make him nervous that the media were talking them up.
“The media was going on and on about Freo’s defensive pressure and I loved it because I knew we could beat it,” he said.
The Hawks did give Ben’s parents a scare though in the preliminary match against Geelong.
“It felt like a grand final for us and had to make a conscious effort to calm ourselves down,” he said.
Ben’s parents were in Victoria for the whole finals series which was lucky considering the flights jumped as high as $1500 when Freo qualified for the big game.
Ben has just finished up his stint at home, having team mates Jordan Lewis, Josh Gibson, Jonathon Simpkin, Kyle Cheney, Sam Grimley and Taylor Duryea with him.
“Mum and dad have loved having the boys here, they have helped around the house and been able to enjoy home cooked meals,” he said.
He said the boys did not know about marron before their visit to the South West so he was able to show them the WA treasure.
Ben has now headed off to Bali and will go from there to Mexico and LA before going back to training on December 2.
