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West Perth midfielder Shane Nelson has heaped praise on club legend Aaron Black, who will play his 250th WAFL game this weekend.
The 2014 Sandover Medal winner and a five time club best and fairest winner, Black will bring up the milestone in this weekend’s game against Swan Districts at Pentanet Stadium.
Nelson told Sports Breakfast Black was a great person as well as a great footballer.
“He’s been an incredible player for the club, and not only the club but in the WAFL in general,” Nelson said.
“I’m super proud to have been able to share the field with him in a lot of those games.
“I’ve seen firsthand the work he’s put in, and to be able to run out alongside him this weekend for this achievement, I’m very honoured.”
Black and Nelson are the only Falcons to play in both the 2014 and 2023 flags, with Nelson saying the pair had a special connection both on and off the field.
“We won one pretty early on in our careers, which we were certainly grateful for,” he said.
“It’s not as easy as it looks to win flags, and to be able to win another one last year was a very proud moment.
“Once you’ve won a couple, you just want to keep winning them, especially as we get to the later stages of our careers. We still think we’ve got a good enough list to win flags and we’re going to keep pushing to win a few more.
West Perth’s premiership defence has been marred by inconsistency, with last week’s 53-point loss to Subiaco, marked by early exits from Zac Langdon and Mark Hutchings due to injury, dropping them outside the top five.
Nelson said getting a win over the Black Ducks would be vital to keep their season alive.
“We’ve unfortunately put ourselves in a pretty bad position,” he said.
“We certainly haven’t been playing our best footy this year and we haven’t reached the heights that we did last year.
“We’re still extremely positive in our year, there’s still some time left and hopefully we can put in a big performance this weekend.”
The clash between West Perth and Swan Districts gets underway at 2:10 pm on Saturday and is being broadcast live on 91.3 SportFM.