Inspirational Eardley proud to reach 100 games

IT is quite the impressive mature mind on the shoulders of Cameron Eardley who will run out for his 100th WAFL game with East Fremantle on Saturday thankful to plenty of people who will be on his mind, including younger brother Kai.

It has been quite the journey for someone only 26 years of age and Eardley is an impressive individual not just because he is a standout midfielder in the WAFL competition and has been for 99 games now ever since returning to East Fremantle following a two-year stint in the AFL with Geelong.

It is easy to see why Eardley is such a natural and inspirational leader by both watching him play and by talking with him, but it's often actions that speak louder than the words and the way he and his family have turned a terrible tragedy into something to help others speaks volumes.

Eardley lost his younger brother, Kai, to suicide in 2016 before he even reached his 21st birthday and it's unimaginable what impact such an event would have on a family, and indeed his brother less than two years older than him.

What has been born out of that was the Eardley family making it their mission to create an avenue of support for young men who might find themselves in a situation like Kai was, and to provide a ray of hope that there is a way out and back to happiness.

It's quite the thing for a young man in his early 20s to deal with and that's why even though things on the field at East Fremantle haven’t been as fruitful as he would have liked without a finals appearance since the 2014 preliminary final, that all is put into perspective by the real world.

So when Eardley runs out onto East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park on Saturday to reach 100 WAFL games with the Sharks, it's with a great deal of pride and he will have his brother on his mind along with everyone else that's helped him along the way.

"My family are probably building it up more than I am and I would like to try and fly under the radar a bit and treat it just like another game of football, but it is an opportunity for me to thank everybody who has helped me get to this point," Eardley said. 

"And for those people who have helped me, they are probably quite proud to see me reach a milestone like this and it will probably be a big day for them definitely.

"I think of him (Kai) all the time, but definitely on special occasions and big moments which this weekend is one, he's definitely in the forefront of my mind.

"What we've done is just try to create a positive out of what happened and the Kai Eardley Fund has now become the Kai Eardley Foundation so we are our own foundation now which gives us a bit more freedom to try to create awareness around mental health, which is all that we are trying to do."

Eardley grew up watching East Fremantle home games on a Saturday afternoon at Shark Park, joined the development squads as a teenager and then came through the colts before he was drafted to Geelong at the end of 2011.

After two years with the Cats, when he returned home to Western Australia he was never going to play his football anywhere but at East Fremantle and now 99 games later, here he is.

Eardley is rightfully proud to reach 100 games and it certainly means that much more to do it at a club that has always been such a significant part of his life.

"It is a big deal and it's a great honour. It's a privilege to be able to play 100 games for any WAFL club but to do it for East Fremantle and the club that I grew up at and have been at ever since the under-14s, I've been there for a fair chunk of my life and that makes it pretty special," he said.

"It's a huge chunk of my life. I did go over east and when I came back home, I was never going to go anywhere else. I remember when I was about four or five I used to come down and watch some WAFL games which is something that kept us busy on Saturdays. 

"The club obviously means quite a lot to me and it has for pretty much my whole life. Sometimes you don’t realise how lucky you are to play for a club like East Fremantle who I grew up supporting. To now get the opportunity to play 100 games for the club is a great privilege. I feel very honoured that I've been able to do so."

That first season, the Sharks were coming off making the 2012 Grand Final and then reached a preliminary final in 2014 where only their horrible inaccuracy cost them another shot at the decider against Subiaco.

So Eardley had every reason to think success for the Sharks during his career wasn’t too far away but it certainly hasn’t been the case.

Since that preliminary final loss in 2014, East Fremantle had won just 20 of 78 matches and haven’t reached the finals again.

Despite those challenging times, Eardley has continued to be one of their best and most consistent performers, and never thought about anything but wanting to help bring success back to the Sharks.

"That preliminary final was one that probably got away from us and since then it has been pretty tough, especially the last three years," Eardley said.

"The times have been pretty tough but I never once thought about leaving, if anything it motivated me more to get this club back to where it should be, and where I know it can be. To be part of that rebuild and getting some success back to the club would be huge to be part of."

Things then started slowly in 2019 for the Sharks under new coach Bill Monaghan as they lost the opening five matches, but things have significantly improved since as they've won three of the past five and things appear on the right path.

A big reason for that has been a group of senior players they hoped could make their mark in 2018 now coming up trumps including Blaine Boekhorst, Nick Kommer, Cameron Loersch and captain Jonathon Griffin.

Then there's the young group to have benefitted from being blooded like Tom Bennett, Ambrose Ryan, Milan Murdock, Kyle Baskerville, Zach Jackson, Tom Monaghan, Chris Scott and Lachlan Bailey who are playing good football.

While Saturday's loss to the West Coast Eagles was tough, the form prior to that has Eardley excited about the direction the Sharks are heading.

"Saturday was a difficult one and they had a great team out there so it was always going to be challenging, but when we looked at the numbers from the game we weren’t actually too bad," he said.

"We still played some good football but just not to the level that we produced the previous four weeks but I certainly think our last four or five weeks of football have been the best that I think we've played in the last two, if not three, years."

With the Sharks having now won three of their last five matches after winning just five games in all of 2017 and 2018 is a significant step forward coming into Saturday's home clash with Claremont.

Eardley is enjoying the growth is seeing with the group and to have new coach Bill Monaghan leading the charge.

"Things do feel like they are starting to click and those more senior players make such a difference just with their leadership and their knowledge," Eardley said.

"So to have them back in the team and with the young kids who have 20 or 30 games under their belts, it's starting to sort of come together. That's finally showing on the field as well and it's exciting to be part of.

"He's got a very impressive resume obviously and when we found out that he was coming to East Freo it was a very positive reaction and that's what he has brought to the club, a lot of positivity. We know he's trying to rebuild pretty much from the ground up and with that there has been a lot of change. 

"We understood that it was always going to take time for it to click and the first five weeks probably weren’t a true representation of where we felt we were at because we were doing a lot right, but were adjusting to the things that had changed."