Fremantle Dockers midfielder Connor Blakely on his record-breaking sub feats, ‘disjointed’ season and feedback from coach Justin Longmuir

Fremantle’s perennial medical substitute Connor Blakely says he was “jumping out of my jocks” to play a rare full game on Sunday as he targets a senior return. Blakely’s “disjointed” campaign has almost matched the craziness of the COVID-affected AFL season. The 25-year-old has started as the Dockers’ sub seven times and been called into action in five of those — both league records. The narrow loss to Claremont in Mandurah at the weekend, where he was one of Peel Thunder’s best, was his sixth WAFL appearance this year to go with two full AFL games. Since his last game, against East Perth on June 26, Blakely was an unused substitute on consecutive weekends and involved in a scrimmage against West Coast in Melbourne after an extended squad was flown over to avoid Perth’s lockdown. MORE AFL NEWS Blakely at least has the “security” of another year on his current contract, but knows it’s a big finish to the year coming up — both individually and collectively. “I was jumping out of my jocks to play,” Blakely said. “Since the West Perth game, before we had to fly out to Melbourne with the lockdown announced in Perth, I hadn’t played a proper game. “We had a 12-vs-12 scrimmage against the Eagles but aside from that, I haven’t really played too much in the whole month. “It’s been a little bit of a disjointed season, I haven’t been able to build some good continuity with playing week in, week out. “I’m more than happy and I’ve spoken to ‘JL’ (Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir) about the challenges of playing the medical sub role. “If it gives me more of an opportunity and a better chance of playing in the AFL as opposed to being an emergency and having that chance at all. “It’s just about balancing my loads, in terms of how much you play. The last two times I was medical sub I wasn’t required.” Blakely said while the medical substitute role felt like a “catch 22”, only coming on if a teammate gets hurt, he was looking at the positives of it. “You’re relying on a teammate to get an injury which you don’t obviously want to see a teammate get hurt, but that’s the only way you’re going to play,” he said. “I sort of look at this year and think if the medical sub role wasn’t in the AFL then I would’ve only played a couple of games so at least I’m getting a bit more exposure. “Whenever I’ve come back to the WAFL, I feel like I’ve had some really solid games which gives me good faith that if I do get another opportunity to play at AFL level, I’ll play well.” Longmuir has given Blakely stuff to work on in the twos but the Bunbury product know it’s a tough engine-room to break into. “It involves a lot around being strong in the contest and doing the basics well for the whole four quarters, so being able to run out games nicely to show that I can not only play well in the first and second quarters, but contribute the whole game,” Blakely said. “I feel like my fitness is at a good level this year and I’m working really hard at training. It’s a case of our midfield, apart from Thursday night, being really solid most of the year and we don’t have too many injuries in there. “Dave Mundy is having a great year, Andy Brayshaw is having a great year, Adam Cerra the same and Caleb Serong has had a good year as well. “I’m on an AFL list to play as much AFL football as possible, I’d love to be out there, but if not I’m really enjoying playing good footy at Peel as well. “I just need to keep playing good footy here and when that opportunity does come, and hopefully it comes soon, that I’m ready to go.” As for his WAFL game on Sunday, Blakely couldn’t help but be frustrated with his finishing in front of the sticks after kicking a wasteful 0.4, including two final-quarter set shots, in the nine-point loss. Kicking for goal aside, the 74-gamer pushed his case for an AFL recall with a massive 31-possession performance in front of Longmuir and Dockers football manager Peter Bell. “I hit the post twice which was pretty frustrating and had a couple of other shots that I needed to be better at,” Blakely said. “I’ll definitely work on that and I practice it each week down at Freo and work hard on it. Coming into this year I hadn’t actually kicked a point so it was just one of those days.”