Clay Smith says there is a unique bond powering the Western Bulldogs towards the ultimate prize
ON Friday night Clay Smith became a finals hero for the Western Bulldogs. But is hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the desperate left-footer.
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CLAY Smith remembers begging the Western Bulldogs medical staff to let him play on.
After tearing his knee apart last year for the third time, the teary devastation was etched all over Smith’s face as he pleaded to hobble back out on the field, basically on one leg.
“We knew I couldn’t do any more damage to it, so as long as I could stand on one leg I wasn’t going to watch on the sidelines,” Smith, 23, told the Sunday Herald Sun.
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“I have had some dark days there, I won’t lie. But just the support from my fiancee, my family, the club, they got me back through it and I knew I could get back and play. It was just whether it (his knee) would hold together this time.”
It has been a journey that has pushed the first-round draft pick to the brink.
But on Friday night, the desperate left-footer became a finals hero, kicking two crucial goals in the Dogs’ second-term charge that helped book the AFL’s giant-killers a preliminary final berth.
Afterwards, friends and family rushed to hug Smith in the rooms, heightening the euphoria.
“I’m blacking out at the moment,” Smith said after the team song.
“This is just absolutely unreal. Just to come from where we have been as a club and where I have been myself to this moment right now, it’s incredible.”
After years of rehab and uncertainty, Smith is making every step count.
Friday night was his 13th consecutive game since his latest comeback and there were magical moments everywhere for the tough nut — a tough set shot from 40m near the boundary; a mark at full stretch in the goal mouth moments later; a searing pass to Jake Stringer in the third term; and any one of his 10 crunching tackles.
After 45 games in five years, when Smith plays now it’s all-in.
“It definitely made me a stronger person and made me value what this job is and how good it really is to be an AFL player,” he said.
“When you watch from the sidelines for so long and really want to do what your teammates are doing and just to be finally be back out here and playing finals, and, winning finals, it’s the best job in the world.”
More than anything, Smith said there is a unique bond powering the Dogs towards the ultimate prize.
And at the heart of it all is the coach, Luke Beveridge.
“He is very, very special man,” Smith said. “He has done wonders for this club, and there were a lot of people who set up the foundations, but he’s just grabbed that and taken it to new levels.
“He has really given everyone just the belief that they can be someone special and we can be something special.
“But we are just a unified group. Every single player that goes out there plays for the side and plays for each other.”
They all believe anything is possible against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night.
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And, they hope, the week after in the big dance.
“We knew if we played four good quarters against Hawthorn that they would crack and we would get over the top and when it happened it was unreal,” Smith said.
“Next week is going to be an epic contest. It’s going to be two young sides that are just going really well at the moment. We are up for it.”
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