About a month ago Brendan McCartney walked past Daniel Giansiracusa, stopped him and asked him to keep an open mind about playing for the Western Bulldogs again next season.
Then, Giansiracusa was feeling good, playing well, enjoying training and watching his young teammates improve around him. He was also comfortable with the thought of retiring, and had been comprehensively preparing for his planned next step, into coaching.
Now, he has found a way to keep doing all of those things. The 31-year-old will be a Western Bulldog for next year and beyond, after agreeing to a one-year contract extension that will evolve into an official coaching role in 2015.
”All my plans for next year are on hold, in one way. In another way I get to prepare even better for life after footy, but the decision I made first was only about playing and I did that knowing that my passion is still there,” Giansiracusa said.
”A lot of people gave me all sorts of advice, so I weighed it all up and decided to take the glass half-full approach. I thought, why not?”
Before making his decision, Giansiracusa needed to be sure that he was prepared to play a 14th season, in body and mind, and that he still understood what came with being one of the oldest members of a reshaped side. He knows his spot in the team will be challenged by younger players, and is looking forward to helping them improve enough to do that, while making it as hard as possible for them to get into the team ahead of him.
He thinks the four weeks he spent as the Bulldogs’ starting substitute earlier this year helped him finish the season in better form than he started it, able to come onto the ground knowing his opponents had already begun to tire. He has kicked 34 goals this season, and on Sunday will play the 250th game he thought for much of this year would be his last match.
”I’ll be managed again next year and there will be a bit of being the sub, for sure. It’s something that helped me a lot this year, once I got my head around how it could work for me,” Giansiracusa said.
”There were times earlier in the year when I thought I was probably cooked, but I just got back to simplifying the game and concentrating more on what I could bring to the team, not what I couldn’t do. I’m still able to run pretty well, I still work hard, and that’s what I focused on, making it more about my teammates and how I could help them, and removing a bit of pressure from myself.
”I get a great deal out of seeing young guys succeed and improve, and I suppose that’s what coaching is about, helping each person improve and be the best player they can be. I really enjoy that.”
Giansiracusa has always planned to get into coaching. He wondered whether he would be better off staying at the Bulldogs or trying somewhere new, but accepted the club’s offer believing he had a lot yet to learn from McCartney.
”Obviously I have to hold up my end of the bargain with my form and I’m not going to hand my spot over easily, but I want to learn as much as I can and use it as a good stepping stone,” he said. ”I’m really grateful I’ve been given the opportunity and grateful they’ve seen something in me that they like.”
