It was a hot Saturday in Southport when Brady Wright made his debut for the Werribee Football Club; a game he didn’t realise would be so pivotal in his football career.
Six and a half minutes into the first quarter, Brady kicked his first ever VFL goal. 18 and a half minutes into the second quarter he kicked a second.
A minute and a half later, a third; a moment Brady describes as pretty special.
“After I kicked my first goal, the confidence grew and the game felt like it came to me.
“When I was lining up for my third, I had all the confidence knowing I would kick it after seeing the first go through,” he said.
“When I was lining up for that first goal I wasn’t really thinking of anything other than just going through my routine that I’ve been practicing all pre-season.
“But once I kicked it, I knew it was going through, and it was a great feeling having all my teammates get around me,” Brady said.
Controlling the Controllables
Being picked to play in a VFL side is no easy feat, and Brady has faced his share of challenges due to injury. But that didn’t stop his determination.
Leading into round one, Brady said his preparation wasn’t much different to any other week. He said he kept focused on the tasks at hand and continued to work on his craft.
“I knew the more I kept thinking about if I would be selected or not, the more it would play on my mind during training and make me less focused on my role.
“My preparation was just taking training session by session and controlling the controllables,” Brady said.
Brady has been named to play in the forward line for Round 2 against Essendon this weekend. He said he’s going into the game with the same mindset as Round 1.
“I’m just going to go into the game with the mindset to play my role for the team and be a target up forward.
“Obviously the nerves won’t be as strong this week, so that’ll help me focus more on my role,” he said.
“But I’m very excited for this week and hopefully we get the result we want.”