Q&A with 2016 Butcher Medalist Michael Sinclair

1) What does winning the Butcher Medal mean to you? Could you have ever imagined it?
It is obviously a great honour to win this award for the club. You look at some of the names that have won it before and it is extremely surreal to see my name up there with them, so it means a lot and something I am pretty proud of. I never would have imagined it, I always wanted to play at the highest level I could but to win a best and fairest award has never really crossed my mind before.

2) Going into season 2016, did you expect to have as strong a year as you ended up having?
I had a relatively strong pre-season and was setting myself to have a big year, but a few niggles early on in the year hindered my performances so I guess to finish the season the way I did was a good outcome and a result of the early work from pre-season.

3) You took your game to a new level this year, can you put this down to anything in particular?
Honestly just putting less pressure on myself and enjoying playing footy, I really enjoyed my footy this year with the group of lads I played with and I guess your confidence just grows from that. Of course you still have to train hard and work hard off field but enjoying myself was a big factor.

4) Did you go into the vote count confident? Or did it come as a surprise?
I went into the night with no expectations. There were plenty of other boys that had had terrific years- Jonesy (Clint Jones), Troppo (Aidan Tropiano), Bluey (Liam McKenna), Jules (Julian Jacobs) and the likes, so I had no real expectations to win but to just enjoy the night and see what happens.

5) Are there any key individuals that significantly helped shape your strong year?
Chance Bateman had a huge influence on my year. He gave me a lot of freedom and confidence in my game and got me down back playing the role that I like so that really helped my performances on field.

6) Do you plan on improving further next year? If so, what will be your focus over the upcoming preseason?
You always want to strive to improve, so there is a lot of things that myself and the coaches went through in the post season reviews that I’ll be working hard on to help improve my game and hopefully go to another level.

7) Would you swap your Butcher Medal for a 2017 premiership one?
Yes, team success is the driving factor in footy, so I would hand it over in a heartbeat if it meant we would play in a flag.

8) Are you excited about the future of Perth?
The core group we have at the moment is still extremely young, and the experience all the boys have got over the last couple of years is only going to hold us in good stead. Hopefully with a few extra signings and more experience coming back to help the younger boys grow will also give us a big stepping stone for next year. So yes I am extremely excited about where the club is headed in the next couple of years.

Be part of the journey...2017 memberships available here.