Eagles recruit Paul Stewart feeling home after 10-year AFL career
FORMER Port Adelaide utility Paul Stewart’s AFL career was far from easy, battling a number of frustrating injuries over a 10-year career.
FORMER Port Adelaide utility Paul Stewart’s AFL career was far from easy.
He battled frustrating injuries over the course of his 10-year AFL tenure and, as a fringe player, had to cope with never knowing whether his form was good enough to claim a spot in Port Adelaide’s starting 22.
Most selection nights he would wait anxiously for a call from the coach, always knowing he could be in the AFL line-up one week and out the next.
“It was tough, always wondering where you’re playing and if you had done enough to keep your spot,” Stewart, 29, said.
“I had a lot of experience of being dropped and having to go back (to the SANFL).
But I learnt to go back with the right attitude and worry about the things I could control and about playing football, no matter where I was playing.”
It has been six months since Stewart’s 101-game career with Port ended.
He is now playing at Woodville-West Torrens – the club where it all began for him before the Power selected him in the 2006 AFL draft.
Stewart, of Henley Beach, is preparing for the Eagles’ round three, Anzac Day clash against reigning premier Sturt and says the club feels like home again.
“I’ve been working my way back and learning the game plan and getting to know the players again,” Stewart said.
“I had conversations with (Eagles coach) Mick Godden throughout pre-season about leadership and helping the boys in any way that I can.
“I’m loving being back.”
Stewart said he went into his final season with Port knowing it could be his last.
He said the day he notched up his milestone 100th match against Brisbane at the Gabba with his family watching will forever be his fondest memory.
“I think I was lucky in a way because when I got the phone call at the end of the year, it wasn’t a huge shock … I had been preparing for it all season,” he said.
Outside of football, Stewart juggles working as a project manager with Skill Hire – a company which runs a community development project in the APY Lands – with spending time with fiancee, Kirra, and seven-month-old daughter, Arlo.