TIM Geappen's 100th game for Swan Districts didn’t quite go according to plan with a loss to West Perth last Saturday, but now the goal scoring machine is gearing up for a top-of-the-table clash with Claremont at Claremont Oval this Saturday.Geappen arrived at Swan Districts in 2008 and has been a key component of the team's forward-line that has made two grand finals, a preliminary final and of course won the 2010 premiership.
He has been a star over his four and-a-half seasons with the black-and-whites missing just the one match on his way now to 100 games and 243 goals to book his name onto the No. 35 locker.
The 28-year-old reached the 100-game mark last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval against West Perth, and while the result wasn’t what Swans were after, it is a milestone that Geappen is tremendously proud of.
"It's something within our footy club that a lot of boys currently playing take a lot of pride in, and once you go through the history of the footy club and see their names on the lockers it's certainly something I never thought I would get to when I came over," Geappen said.
"But as I got closer, it was something I really wanted to achieve and I'm certainly proud to play 100 games. I've now played more games for this footy club than I did for my club back home, which is something I never thought would happen. It does mean a lot to me and it's something I will look at fondly at the end of my career."
When Geappen did sign for Swans and come west from Tasmania, he thought it would be just for the 2008 and 09 seasons.
However, having being so close to glory with the grand final and preliminary final losses to Subiaco in those two seasons, he couldn’t leave without that elusive premiership and it came in 2010.
Then he again found himself out of contract last year, but couldn’t bring himself to leave either after such a disappointing 2011 as a team.
"We felt we had a good enough side in 2009 to really compete for the premiership and get into the grand final, and to lose to Subiaco in that prelim final left us feeling like we had something still to achieve. We then picked up Andrew Krakouer and then thought we would have the side that could win in 2010, and that was the main driving force why I stayed that extra year," he said."Getting so close in 2009 and then winning it in 2010, we felt we could be competitive again last year but then having such a disappointing year we felt as a playing group that we had to come back from that, and personally I wanted to stick around to help the club back to where we believe we can be at.
"With the players we had and players we picked up this year, we felt we could get back into the top-four and be competitive so that was a massive factor in terms of me sticking around for sure."
Geappen wanted to stick around for 2012 after the disappointment of last year and so far things are going nicely for Swan Districts with the club sitting atop the ladder coming into this week's top-of-the-table clash with Claremont at Claremont Oval.
Geappen has been in outstanding form again kicking 34 goals, but for him he sees the difference coming from an overall lift across the board from the players at the club.
"Things are ticking along pretty well at the minute, but there's still a long way to go and it's only the end of June. To be a game clear, though, is probably exceeding our expectations for this stage of the year," Geappen said.
"Matt Riggio has probably been our best player for the year, Ryan Davis has had an equally good year, Murray Newman is playing the best footy of his career, Michael Walters is the fittest he's been and then you've got blokes like Hildebrandt, Roach, Marlon Motlop and blokes like Kyle Hams are a lot fitter.
"Pretty much the whole footy club is going better and then getting Twoms back from the AFL with his skills has been massive as well. Add those new blokes in who can run and carry, and use the footy and that's where our improvement has come from."There were a number of factors that brought Geappen to Swan Districts and WA in the first place, but now that he reflects on having played 100 games, represented WA against Queensland last year and winning a premiership, it's the best move he's ever made.
"A mate of mine played over here, Dean Ipaviz, and basically I was keen to get out of Tassie so I was either going to go to Melbourne or come here, but I thought Perth would suit my style of game better with the big grounds and lots of space, and beautiful weather," Geappen said.
"Then once the club was in contact with me they were really good, and looked after me and it was a pretty easy choice in the end to get out of the Tassie weather and into the nice weather in Perth.
"I've just been really lucky in terms of walking into a club that has played finals every year I've been here except last year, and won a flag."
