KEY Swan Districts play-maker Wayde Twomey is having a third straight outstanding WAFL season, this time with the added responsibility of stopping roles as he prepares for Sunday's second semi-final with Claremont at Claremont Oval.
Twomey arrived at Swan Districts from VFL club Werribee and over three seasons has established himself as one of the most creative players and best users of the ball coming out of defence.
While more time in the midfield might be something he craves, he has made the role across half-back his own and after being able to basically roam free in 2008 and 09, he has done some good stopping roles on dangerous forwards as well this year.
He will likely have to do that again this week in the second semi-final likely on Claremont's Andrew Foster, Ian Richardson, Ryan Brabazon or a host of other dangerous Tigers. The 24-year-old has enjoyed the new role with more responsibility.
"It has been a different role this year and Daws (coach Brian Dawson) has got me shutting down blokes more this year instead of just running off and doing whatever I want to do. It has been different but I just have to do whatever is best for the team," Twomey said.
"It is tough to get the balance right at times. There might be a split second where you take off because you think we've won the ball and all of a sudden it's turned over and you're the worst guy in the world, but if it comes off you're the best guy in the world.
"It's like living by the sword or dying by the sword. I don’t mind playing on the better forwards because if you shut them down you feel like you are doing good for the team and it's more of a feather in your cap."
While the Round 21 meeting at Claremont Oval proved disastrous for Swans as they suffered a 73-point defeat, Twomey sees a positive that at least the team will now be used to the ground returning just three weeks later.
He sees pressure as the key and the focus for the likes of himself, Andrew Krakouer, Graham Jetta, Clancee Pearce, Travis Casserly, Brett Wolfenden, Luke Pratt, Tallan Ames and Paul Richardson, in particular, to apply on Claremont's key players.
"It's definitely an advantage that we were there just three weeks ago and we can take a fair bit out of that, but the home team always seems to grow an extra leg when they play at home for some reason," Twomey said.
"It's always a big challenge against them boys because they play their game plan to perfection. It helps that (Chad) Jones isn’t there, but they have Richo and Ninyette, and they can all step up so we'll just have to play as good as we can against them to take it right up to them.
"We just didn’t put enough pressure on them. They've got their midfielders and everyone who can run, and we just let them do what they wanted. If you put enough pressure on no team is good under huge pressure, so we just have to put enough on them and hopefully they will crumble."
Twomey was able to spend more time in the midfield in last Saturday's 110-point win over Peel at Steel Blue Oval and picked up 36 possessions and kicked three goals as a result. He enjoyed that freedom, but knows it will be back to normal this Sunday.
"It was a good confidence booster even though Peel aren’t quite up to it at the moment. Just to play the sort of footy that we now hope to in the next couple of weeks was great," he said.
"Daws always promises me more time in the midfield but never seems to give it to me, but when he does I seem to go all right. I just do whatever Daws wants me to do at the time though. If he needs me to shut someone down, then that's what I have to do. It's always good to get a couple of goals and get your name in the paper though."
While he was impressive with 36 touches and three goals, Andrew Krakouer was simply brilliant with 51 disposals and Twomey almost ran out of superlatives trying to describe the Sandover Medal favourite.
"You just can't stop the man, he just dominates. One of the boys from Peel even yelled out from full-forward telling his teammates to tackle Andrew Krakouer, but you just can't stop him. He is just too good at the moment," Twomey said.
"He brings everyone else into the game as well and he just does it all. That's the best thing about it and sometimes the coaches tell him off for handballing because he is such a good kick, but he just wants to bring everyone else into the game and he does it well."
Twomey's good mate Brett Robinson will also play his third league back from the LARS operation on his knee, and he backs the goal kicking midfielder to only continue to improve.
"He's got a couple of games under his belt now and he just has to keep growing in confidence and hopefully he'll be back to his best around grand final time," he said.
"His comeback has gone perfectly and he put in the hard yards in the rehab as well, and didn’t put a foot wrong. He's got his just rewards I reckon."
Twomey has been a key part of the Swans' team that made the 2008 grand final, lost last year's preliminary final and now have finished 2010 in second spot, and feels like the time is now right for the team to get the ultimate reward even though he knows it will be tough.
"The first year we were all a bit dumbfounded by how far we went and we didn’t know what was going on with such a young side," he said.
"Now our average age would be about 24 or 25 and we are growing as a group. It's our third go at it so we should be pretty comfortable out there in finals now."
Twomey might not have been totally surprised when Dawson announced that he will be standing down as coach once the finals campaign is over, but does want to make it as good a send off as possible for the man he has no doubt is the best coach he's had.
"It's a bit of unfinished business for Daws and we have to make sure we get up for him. He has always mentioned throughout the year that he would have some time away next year so I clued it together a little bit, but it put the nail in the coffin when he made it official," Twomey said.
"He has been perfect for me. He let me do what I wanted for the first two years and you can never complain about that, but he just interacts with the players so well.
"Other coaches just brush you aside when you get a bit used, but he has a great bond with his players. I've only had Simon Atkins and Brian Dawson as my coaches at senior level and he's definitely above Simon Atkins."
