Favourite Son Excited for Homecoming |
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In his own words, there'll be "mixed emotions" for Jonathon Bremner as he returns to his home town as a member of the Melbourne Ice to take on the CD Dodd Perth THunder on Saturday night. Bremner was a foundation player for the Thunder, and racked up 83 points (38 goals, 45 assists) in 163 games for the Thunder, including Local Player of the Year honours last season. Ahead of his return to Perth, Bremner caught up via Skype from Ballarat with ThunderTV Commentator and Fifth Liners Podcast co-host Jordan Scardetta to chat about what was going through his mind as he prepared to take the ice in Perth once again. JS: I'm joined by former Perth Thunder forward now Melbourne Ice forward Jonathon Bremner on the verge of his return to Perth, first of all Jonathon, thanks for jumping on and doing this, and secondly, what’re you expecting when you come to Perth to play in opposition colours for the first time? JB: (laughs) Weird feelings, I think. Obviously I’d been there (the Thunder) six or seven years and living in Perth my whole life. I’m excited to come home and see my family, and I still have regular contact with all of the boys, so it’s something that I always knew was going to come; it was always on the calendar, and I’m looking forward to it to be honest. Going to be mixed emotions, but exciting times for sure. JS: On your personal life, you moved over for your career progression outside of hockey, how’s that all tracking along for you? JB: As planned, it’s been unbelievable. I’m with a good company, and I think it was a spark that I needed. As I’ve said previously, I was looking for quite some time and when the opportunity came up, it was one that I really wanted to take. Even though Perth has always been home, and probably always will be in my heart, this has been a positive move and I’m just a really happy man at the moment living in Melbourne. The club has been fantastic for me as well; I’m around a good group of guys. I know it sounds cliché but I’ve stepped in to a fun locker room, and as much as we’ve had some on-ice challenges this year, I’m really happy with the way the club has been. As far as my career is concerned, I’m certain this was the right move for me and my future, so everything is really good at the moment. JS: You’re a fan favourite over here so they’ll be pleased to know you’re happy. With the Ice, you’re ten games in to the season, you’ve got three points yourself, the team has done some good things at times but they’ve been a bit all over the shop. What’re you expecting out of this group at the Melbourne Ice moving forward? JB: It’s been tough. The club is in a bit of a transition, the core of the group that’s carried them to the championships in years past are developing interests and have families and other things outside of the game. Naturally that pulls them away, and it doesn’t allow some of the most important people within the organisation to be around as much as they’d like. I’ve stepped in at sort of a strange time, and for me personally it’s been different as well. The challenges of being a part of a brand new playing group to me, and trying to forge a role and develop trust from my teammates and from the coaching staff. It’s different and something I haven’t really had to do before, having played for one club for six or seven years. Moving forward I think we can do some good things. We’ve shown some good signs over the last couple of weeks where we’ve had a couple of good games, some close games against some top teams and we had a win against the Mustangs last week in the derby and followed it up with a win over Adelaide. It’ll be interesting to see how we go against Perth, another team that’s had some on-ice challenges too. We’re hoping we can put a run together towards the end of the year and push towards a finals spot. JS: What’s been the major difference between playing in Perth and playing in Melbourne? JB: The two organisations are very similar. When the Thunder was in it’s infancy, I think management had a good relationship with the Melbourne Ice, and being the model franchise over the years, they helped management over the years and I think they’ve tried to shape the Thunder in a similar way. For me, I haven’t noticed too much of a difference, to be honest, between the organisation of the clubs. We play in a bigger arena and it’s a different group of people, but for me it’s just about trying to do that same things I was able to do in Perth last year and contribute to the group because as players, that’s all you really want. You want to be someone who’s important to the success of the team, and I’ve made strides in that respect but I’m not completely there. I’m just hoping to be a bit more consistent, get on the board a bit more often, and get the coaches to trust my game a little bit more. JS: Are you missing the frequent flyer points? JB: (laughs) The travel is a dream, I tell all the boys all the time. Travel from Melbourne to Sydney, Newcastle or Canberra, it’s one hour flights here and there. I don’t think the guys over east really appreciate the burden travel has on the guys in Perth. We’ve got this Perth-Adelaide weekend coming up, but I’ll take that any day of the week over what we had to deal with in Perth. JS: We’re really looking forward to seeing you at Perth Ice Arena on Saturday night Jono, go well. JB: Thanks mate, I’m really looking forward to it and hoping I get some smiles while I’m down there and not too much hostility. |
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Perth Thunder
ThunderDome - Perth Ice Arena
708 Marshall Rd, Malaga
Perth, Western Australia
6090 Australia
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