After seven years chasing his AFL dream, Fraser Turner returns to where his love for footy began

Fraser Turner has come full circle in his footy career after being drafted as a fresh faced teenager before returning to Tassie this year. He opens up on returning to Clarence and his expectations.

Clarence onballer Fraser Turner is “loving” being back at the club where his footy career all began.

Drafted to Richmond in 2018, Turner is now back on his home deck playing on grounds he hasn’t played on in seven years.

“I am loving it, loving playing it, all the grounds I haven’t played at for a few years,” Turner said.

“I reckon KG5 where I played on the weekend, it was probably six or seven years since I played there.

“I’m loving being back home and really enjoying the group Clarence have got this year.

“We are pretty young and exciting and we’ve had a lot of debutants this year and we are looking to our youth and they are really standing up which is really promising.”

Fraser Turner was drafted to the Tigers during their premiership era. (AAP Image/Scott Barbour)

Turner went pick 58 in the NAB AFL Draft in 2018, playing 15 games in the Tigers VFL side in 2019.

In 2021, Turner moved to the SANFL playing for South Adelaide where he played 40 games across two seasons before trying his luck at East Fremantle in the WAFL where he represented the Sharks 41 times across two seasons before returning this season to Hobart.

The Roos sit second just a game behind ladder leaders and undefeated Lauderdale – the only team Clarence has lost to this season.

Since the opening round loss, the Roos have won four in a row thanks to the connection among the group according to Turner.

“Coming into the season we had a fresh group, quite a lot of departures which left us open minded going into this season about what we could achieve,” Turner said.

“I think round 1 really set the tone for us even though we didn’t get the result against Lauderdale, we’ve walked away from the game with a lot of confidence and belief and I think we have taken that into the following rounds since then.

“We’ve played every other team since then (round 1) so to come up against Lauderdale again this weekend is really exciting, particularly on our home deck.

“You always want to challenge yourself against the best and they are on top of the ladder at the moment.

“We will be really looking to take it up to them and come away with the result.”

The Roos claimed a 19-point win over Glenorchy in round 5, a game Turner said his side still haven’t quite hit their best.

“I think we played really well in patches, so this week we will definitely be looking to putting a four quarter performance together,” Turner said.

“I think we had a lot more inside 50s and able to maintain a lot more possession of the footy than they were but we just didn’t take our chances enough.

“That will be something we will be looking at during the week and looking to implement it during the game against Lauderdale.”

Originally published as After seven years chasing his AFL dream, Fraser Turner returns to where his love for footy began