Port Adelaide star Aliir Aliir opens up on baby Mayom and being reunited with family in Perth
Aliir Aliir is coming off what he describes as an inconsistent year. But now he has a special ‘blessing’ driving him. He opens up on that and being reunited with family in Perth.
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Family has been a focus for Aliir Aliir during Port Adelaide’s pre-season trip to Western Australia.
Beyond trainings, meetings and team activities, Aliir has been catching up with his Perth-based relatives during the week away while making sure to check on his loved ones back in SA.
The 28-year-old has spent mornings and nights FaceTiming his partner Sabina and son Mayom, whom they welcomed in August.
Aliir described becoming a dad as the best thing to happen to him.
“It’s been such a blessing,” Aliir said.
“There’s times where you get two, three hours sleep but you wake up and you’ve just got him in his hand, and it feels like you’ve slept for nine hours.
“I can’t wait to go back to him.
“That’s the beauty of technology, we FaceTime every morning, every night and just want to see their face.
“They’re the reason I do what I do.”
Aliir is set to enter his third season at the Power and is coming off what he calls an inconsistent 2022 campaign.
After being named an All-Australian in 2021, he suffered an ankle injury in round 1 last March then felt his form was up and down until about two thirds of the way through the year.
Aliir said the club’s new defensive coach Nathan Bassett had brought a different approach, wanting the backline to rotate opponents in games, rather than stick to the same players, and attack more from half-back.
“I’m feeling good going into the season,” he said.
Aliir thought the Power played well in its match simulation against West Coast last Friday – which the Eagles led by eight points after four quarters – but made too many small errors.
He was looking forward to again playing in front of his large family versus Fremantle in Perth on Thursday, the clubs’ last pre-season clash.
“Covid made it a little bit tough but Port have been great and as soon as the border opened they allowed me to go home and see family,” he said.
“Everyone’s here – mum’s here, brother, sisters, niece, got about 10 of them, nieces and nephews, a whole squad here.”
Tuesday’s training session at Joondalup brought back fond memories for Aliir, who once kicked four goals in a colts game at the ground, the home of WAFL club West Perth.
“I got asked to go forward to try to give us a percentage boost … which was probably the last time I kicked a bag,” he recalled.
“It’s always good to come back here.”
With five career goals from 107 games at Sydney and the Power, Aliir joked he was probably the last option to play in attack now.
Rozee welcomes the pressure of becoming ‘elite’
The lights dim in Adelaide Oval’s William Magarey Room and an image of Port Adelaide stars through the years appears on the screen.
From left to right are a key architect of the club’s golden era, Bob McLean, six-time premiership captain Fos Williams, champion player turned legendary coach John Cahill, quadruple Magarey medallist Russell Ebert and inaugural Power skipper Gavin Wanganeen.
Then there is Connor Rozee.
Being pictured alongside Alberton royalty at Port Adelaide’s Hall of Fame gala this month is further proof that after becoming an All-Australian and best-and-fairest winner in 2022, Rozee is now among the main faces of the 152-year-old club.
One day, he hopes to become its captain.
“100 per cent,” Rozee, 23, tells News Corp.
“Anyone who wants to be a leader wants to lead their club.
“If that comes around then that’s great, but if it doesn’t, any sort of leadership role’s great.
“I just want to help the club get on the right path.”
The Power views leadership as the next step in Rozee and close mate Zak Butters’ careers.
They were chosen seven picks apart – Rozee at five, Butters at 12 – in a fortune-changing 2018 draft for the club, which made the first of consecutive preliminary finals two years later.
Rozee – the Power’s equal second-highest selection ever – is 81 games into his career and approaching his fifth season.
This summer, the coaches have pushed him and Butters to step up more in meetings and during trainings.
Although the club’s leadership group was unchanged for 2023, Rozee and Butters joined captain Tom Jonas, Ollie Wines and Darcy Byrne-Jones on a pre-season camp to welcome the Power’s seven recruits.
“We’ve got some guys who are getting a bit older and the young boys are coming through, and starting to take another step,” Rozee says.
“I’m really excited to hopefully continue down that path and potentially one day be some sort of leader of the footy club.”
Learning from a former Power captain was a key part of Rozee’s off-season.
Travis Boak took Rozee, Butters, Mitch Georgiades and Ryan Burton to Santa Cruz, California in October to train with human movement expert Austin Einhorn.
Boak has been spending part of his off-season with Einhorn, whose team is “on a mission to make non-contact injuries extinct”, since before Covid.
It is one of the many ways the 34-year-old Port Adelaide veteran has helped to extend his career and keep at the top of his game.
An admirer of Boak’s thirst for improvement, Rozee wanted to see how the evergreen midfielder trained with Einhorn and follow suit.
“There’s no better person to learn off than Travis,” he says.
“He’s obviously been able to extend his career a lot longer than a lot of people thought and proved that again this year by winning our time trial.
“The way he approaches his off-season, he doesn’t leave any stone unturned.
“He’s always finding little things to get better at and that’s something hopefully I can take into my own career.”
Einhorn taught Rozee several exercises that helped with niggles, particularly a shoulder issue, as well as running techniques to help him move more efficiently.
Fitness was the major focus of Rozee’s pre-season.
He resumed running earlier than usual, as soon as he returned from the US, wanting to get more kilometres in the tank to support his increased on-ball role.
“My fitness is something I’ve been working on for a few years but was still something I had to improve on if I was going to be in the midfield for longer,” he says.
Round five against Carlton was the game that Rozee became an on-baller who had stints up forward, not the other way around.
Down on form in attack as the Power was getting well beaten at the MCG, coach Ken Hinkley moved the magnets.
Rozee went on to finish the game with 24 disposals, six tackles and a goal, inspiring the side’s fightback from a 49-point half-time deficit to a narrow defeat.
He was a key on-ball cog from then on, ending the season with his first All-Australian blazer and John Cahill Medal.
“I’d never really played a full game in the midfield and that half helped me with my confidence,” he says.
“I’m a bit of a confidence player so once I was able to get that, it helped me for the following weeks and months.
“(Earning All-Australian and best-and-fairest honours) was a bit surprising, you never go into a season hoping for those sorts of things.
“They give me confidence in my pre-season and coming into this year knowing I’m on the right track.
“It was disappointing we didn’t make finals so that’s the main priority for this year.”
While there is no set figure for Rozee’s positional split for 2023, he expects it to be similar to the end of last season.
“Playing that half-forward role can be pretty tough so hopefully I can lock down a role in the midfield and still go forward a bit,” he says.
The Power’s plan to move the ball quicker from defence to attack and take the game on more is music to the ears of the creative, fleet-footed Rozee.
“We’ve got a pretty young, energetic side so I think that plays to our strengths,” he says.
“I also think it plays to my strengths.”
Rozee is aware he has set a standard people will expect him to match or better in coming seasons.
That does not faze him, he has lofty internal expectations.
Nor is he bothered by the extra scrutiny he will receive from becoming a star of the competition.
“It’s just part of getting better – you get a bit more attention,” says Rozee, who is not a footy nut and prefers watching the NBA or EPL over AFL games.
“I want to be the best player I can be … but at the end of the day a premiership is the main goal.”
Rozee is the only one of those stars from that Hall of Fame night image to not have a won a flag with Port Adelaide.
He snared a premiership with North Adelaide in 2018, shining across half-back during the SANFL finals to boost his draft stocks.
Rozee is noticing little signs of his growing stature at Port.
“It’s pretty cool,” he says of the Hall of Fame backdrop.
“Those guys are legends of our football club and you never expect to be cast in that sort of light when you get to the club, you just want to play a game.
“I’m excited for this next part of my career and I just want to continue to build and get better because I’m still pretty young and have got a long way to go.”
Rozee is contracted to the Power until the end of 2024.
An extension seems like a formality at some stage but he is unsure if he will re-sign this year.
“We haven’t even started talking about that yet,” he says.
“The goal is obviously to stay at this football club.
“I love being here and I want to take us to a premiership, so that (extension) will come in time, I’m sure.”
Off the field, Port Augusta-raised Rozee is secure in Adelaide.
Rozee lives with his partner, Maisie, whose “huge support” he credits with helping his football.
“My life is a lot easier than it would be without her so I have a lot to thank her for and I’m sure she’ll be amazing going forward,” he says.
“I can’t wait for our life together.”
They are being kept busy renovating their home with the help of Rozee’s father, Rob.
“My dad’s pretty good at that sort of thing so he’s been at my house 24-7, showing me some tricks,” he says.
Everyone knows Rozee is skilful in possession of a football, but what about on the tools?
“I try my best,” he says.
“I do whatever Dad tells me to do pretty much.”
Port Adelaide’s squad has also had something of a makeover after its slump to 11th last season, trading for Jason Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli.
Rozee is buoyant about the team’s prospects and genuinely believes it can win a flag this year.
“I don’t think we’re too far away, the competition is really close,” he says.
“If we start the season the way we finished last season, we can have a real crack.
“We have a really strong list and everyone’s really driven this year so we’re all really excited to have another crack.”
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