The extraordinary secret GWS Giants rookie Zac Langdon kept from teammates

THE Giants knew they’d discovered a weapon when Zac Langdon walked through the door. What they didn’t know was the rookie was wrestling with the extreme personal anguish of a loved one’s fight for life.

GWS Giants rookie Zac Langdon and his girlfriend Eli Suleska 21, who is in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma. Picture: Phil Hillyard

FOR the entire pre-season the GWS Giants knew they’d discovered a secret weapon, but didn’t know his secret.

Football is famous for its team culture but for four months the Giants mature-age draftee Zac Langdon had been fighting his most haunting challenge away from the dressing room.

They knew the 22-year-old small forward had uprooted his life and moved all the way across the country, but unbeknown to teammates, Langdon was also wrestling with the extreme personal anguish of his young partner battling cancer.

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GWS Giants rookie Zac Langdon and his girlfriend Eli Suleska 21, who is in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma. Picture: Phil Hillyard

But finally, on the eve of round one, he was able to stand up in front of his peers and reveal that girlfriend Eli, 21, had beaten her Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Langdon broke down in tears as his teammates embraced him.

Five minutes later, he was told he would make his AFL debut.

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“You don’t realise what you’ve got until something like that happens,” Langdon told Fox Sports presenter Neroli Meadows in a moving interview to air tomorrow night on Fox Footy’s On the Mark.

Eli Suleska and Zac Langdon at Joondalup Health Campus after Eli had a biopsy operation in September. Picture: Supplied/Eli Suleska

Eli Suleska receives chemotherapy treatment at Fiona Stanley Hospital in December. Picture: Supplied/Eli Suleska

“I was pretty nervous going to training that day (when Eli’s results came through).

“Once she called me I knew straight away by the tone of her voice. She told me she was all clear and I was just jumping up and down.

“I had told Leon and the welfare managers, just for peace of mind that if anything was to happen to Eli, that she was still No. 1 to me and I’d have to head back home. But I tried to keep most of it quiet.

“After she got the all clear I spoke to Leon and asked if I could let the boys know.

“I couldn’t believe the response from the boys, they were amazing, they just got around me straight away and it was about five minutes after Leon told me I was going to debut for round one.

“I went from crying telling the story to hearing that. It was a huge day. I still can’t believe I’m playing AFL.”

Despite his partner’s struggles, Langdon has been among the best rookies in the game for GWS. Picture: Getty Images

They grew up high school sweethearts in the tiny mining town of Dampier in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, 18 hours’ drive from Perth. And now, after going to hell and back, they’re reunited again in Sydney.

Langdon praised Eli for her toughness and says he will be “forever grateful” for her sacrifices in backing his football dream.

In the couple’s interview on Fox Footy, Eli opens up on the heartbreaking moment when she learned of her crushing diagnosis last year.

And how she bravely urged Langdon to not withdraw from the AFL draft despite the four rounds of chemotherapy she was about to undergo.

Eli Suleska in the hospital with her sister Svetlana Suleska. Picture: Supplied/Eli Suleska

Eli proudly sat at Langdon’s side on draft night and — despite his mixed emotions upon learning he was moving away from her to Sydney — she never once thought of her own predicament.

“I had a bit of shoulder pain and had a bunch of scans and they ended up telling me I had a tumour in my chest between my heart and my lung. It was very hard,” Eli told Meadows On The Mark.

“They took a big chunk out of it and … it was Hodkinson’s Lymphoma.

“I didn’t want him to pull out of (the draft). I knew I was going to be OK and I just said to him an opportunity like this isn’t going to come again considering his age. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

*Watch the interview on On The Mark, Fox Footy at 8.30pm Wednesday night

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Originally published as The extraordinary secret GWS Giants rookie Zac Langdon kept from teammates