Team success drives Anderson's return to Swans

Frank Anderson freely admits he was chasing his AFL dream when he first arrived at Swan Districts, but 12 months taken from his career made him weigh up his future, and now it's helping bring a premiership to Bassendean that's a driving force behind his return.

Anderson made the significant decision to move across the country back at the end of 2019 to chase his AFL dream by joining Swan Districts and playing in the WAFL, which he saw as a step up from where he had been playing in the VFL with the Northern Blues.

He then went on to have a strong first season in the COVID ravaged 2020 season and then went up another level in 2021 to have a simply brilliant season. That saw him end up winning the Swan Medal, named to the WAFL Team of the Year and to be among the elite WAFL midfielders.

Anderson's career was just about at its highest ever point then during the elimination final of 2021 against West Perth. Not only were Swans in control of the game at Joondalup, Anderson was playing another standout game for the black-and-whites and then tragedy struck.

Anderson went down with a knee injury, Swan Districts ended up being overrun by West Perth and the end result was the team's season was over. So were the next 12 months of football for Anderson when it was confirmed he ruptured his ACL.

Having made the move to the other side of the country to chase his football dream and then to have one season almost taken away by COVID and then knowing his 2022 was over before it started had Anderson weighing up playing on again at all.

However, the 25-year-old didn’t want to stop playing with unfinished business and has committed to return to Swan Districts in 2023.

"I'm feeling really positive about the decision to come back and play for the Swans," Anderson said.

"Realistically it was either going to be the case of coming back to the club and playing in the WAFL or choosing a completely different path and not playing at all.

"I spent a lot of the year talking to people whose opinion I really value and I spent a lot of time by myself thinking about not playing, and pursuing some different things career-wise. But now I'm really, really excited about getting back to the playing group and having an impact."

Anderson is a deep thinker and doesn’t do anything half-hearted, so there's no way he was going to come back to play in the WAFL in 2023 unless he was committed to giving it 100 per cent.

He did a lot of soul searching throughout 2022 because he knew that if he did return, his AFL dream was likely over and now his focus would solely be on being the best footballer he could to help Swan Districts chase that first premiership since 2010.

Once he knew that his desire to help Swans achieve that success was all the motivation he needed, he was keen to be back on board.

"Talking to a few people who have been in that situation doing a significant knee injury, a lot of people gave the advice that you don't want to finish on such a bad note," Anderson said.

"I was partly playing footy obviously to be drafted and that was a big reason I wanted to move to Perth and spend some time in a high quality competition in a major role at a good club. I'm not disappointed in my efforts at all, I put everything into it and sacrificed a lot.

"It was just through luck that I didn’t get a chance. But the reason for coming back now is completely different. I no longer am chasing individual success and that was only part of why I was playing anyway.

"The reason I'm coming back is all geared around winning a premiership and that's something I  haven’t done at a state level, and it's something I absolutely believe Swans can get within the next couple of seasons."

While Anderson is now committed to returning to Swans and playing in the WAFL, that doesn’t take away from the challenges the last 12 months have presented when he had football taken away from him right when he was at the peak of his powers.

"It's been really challenging because I did move across to play football and I left a lot of things back in Melbourne," he said.

"I left my family and a lot of my friends, and I was pursuing playing AFL. Obviously to go through that injury and to lose my identity as a footballer for 12 months, and recognise the dream that I'd had for six years probably wasn’t going to work out was really challenging.

"It was a case of trying to find what's next in terms of a career and the year has been really challenging."

It was a life changing move when Anderson packed up and came to Western Australia at the end of 2019. It's been quite the rollercoaster ride since too with COVID ruining 2020, then the best season of his football life in 2021 and then having to find himself again in 2022 without football.

However, what he has discovered is that he's created a home in Perth so whether he was playing football or not moving forward, it's always where he was likely to continue call home.

"I love Perth and I knew pretty early on this was a place that I wanted to stay for a long time, and footy gave me a chance to be here for at least two years," Anderson said.

"I recognised pretty early on I was going to stay here a lot longer. I own a business in Perth, I have a house in Perth as well so without playing footy it allowed me to pursue a few things I wouldn’t have time for otherwise.

"I spent a lot of time travelling around Australia and I travelled through Asia as well. I got to tick off a few things that footy probably wouldn’t allow me to do in a regular season so to that case, there were positives about the year.

"It was then also about dealing with the fact that I was on the sidelines and trying to decide if I was going to come back or not."

New Swans coach Andrew Pruyn and vice-captain Jesse Turner after winning the Swan Medal for 2022 have been among those involved at the black-and-whites to make it clear that the goal in 2023 is to win the premiership.

They aren’t afraid to shoot for that goal and not just be satisfied with being competitive or making finals. That's something that excites Anderson to come back into that team who are looking to be the absolute best and prove the doubters wrong.

"I don't think anyone at the club dances around the fact that in 2019 the team was 2-16," Anderson said.

"I listened to a lot of media throughout the 2022 season while not playing and I still think there's a genuine lack of respect from a lot of people in the WAFL media.

"Internally I know there's confidence that we can not only make the finals, but be fit enough, strong enough and unified enough to go deep into those finals.

"The collection of those things will be important in how it turns out at the end of September, but the first step is unifying the group and from all reports everyone is on the same page. There's really strong friendships that have formed and the group is geared around one goal, and that's to win a premiership."

Anderson is now ready to throw himself into the pre-season to get ready for his return in 2023, and can't wait to get to work on that premiership goal with Swan Districts.

"My pre-season's been 12 months in the making realistically," he said.

"I've been working really hard the last three months especially with Liam Warwick out of Athlete Alliance, and I'm excited to get back around some other people training instead of just doing it by myself. I'm so keen to get into it, I'm absolutely ready to go and can't wait."