Praise for Papertalk on WAFL debut

Chapman Valley and Brigades product Callum Papertalk made his long-awaited WAFL league debut in West Perth’s four-point loss to East Perth last week.

Despite having been an AFL-listed player with West Coast in 2012, Papertalk never played a senior WAFL match with his club at the time, East Fremantle.

Last season he played for Bassendean in the WA Amateur Football League, winning a premiership with the club before electing to rekindle his WAFL career at West Perth this season.

His senior selection was a while coming, after a string of strong performances at reserves level, including a seven-goal haul in round 18 against Claremont, which led to a league debut.

With the return of key players from injury, it is unknown whether he will retain his place this weekend against his old side East Fremantle, though West Perth coach Bill Monaghan has predicted a big future for the forward at the club.

“His form over the past five or six weeks since he moved forward in the reserves has been outstanding and he thoroughly deserved his chance, ” he said.

“He had a really strong pre-season in terms of running and we started using him down back and on a wing but he struggled a little bit with that; nearly out of hope we threw him forward and he was really creative, got good goal sense and has a little bit of ‘X’ factor about him.”

“It’s hard for him living south of the river and getting to training, but I’d love him to stick at it and it’s really a confidence thing with Cal, if he continues to work hard then there’s a big future for him at the West Perth Football Club.”