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Bolton Loving Life at Tigerland

Thursday, June 9, 2016 - 8:46 AM

Bolton Loving Life at Tigerland

by Dan Scamozzi

Claremont midfielder Jye Bolton is having a significant impact on the field in his first season in the WAFL and is thoroughly enjoying his time in WA.

“I’m absolutely loving it at the moment,” Bolton told 91.3 Sport FM’s WAFL World.

“The club are very professional in the way they go about it, and at the same time, the whole club have welcomed me way better than I could’ve imagined.”

Bolton’s blistering form saw him named “Player of the Week” for Round 11 following his 37 disposals, 14 marks and four goals in Claremont’s 80-point thrashing of Swan Districts at the Showgrounds.

Bolton, 24, is averaging 26.4 disposals, seven marks and has kicked eight goals in his first 10 games, and has been an important cog in the Tigers’ midfield since joining the club from the Werribee Tigers.

“The reason why I ended up coming over here – there was a couple of different reasons – I’ve always been enticed by what people – who I take advice off in footy – had told me that it would really suit my game style over here with the bigger grounds,” Bolton said.

“And another factor was that it was announced that Werribee were going into a full alignment with North Melbourne.

“I’d been on the other side of that in terms of playing at VFL-level and being on Collingwood’s (rookie) list, and I just thought it would be a good opportunity for me to come and try football over here.”

Bolton was drafted by Collingwood with Pick #73 in the 2010 Rookie Draft, but delisted by the Magpies at the end of 2011.

Making Bolton’s start to the season even more impressive was the midfielder’s ability to adapt to his new surrounds at Claremont after a short pre-season.

“I didn’t do much of a pre-season pre-Christmas because I broke my foot last year and I was still recovering from surgery on that,” Bolton said.

“But I got over here around about January 7 and pretty much went into full training from then.”

Bolton is relishing the WAFL’s bigger grounds and space to operate in.

“Over here it’s pivotal to have high fitness levels to cover the ground well enough,” he said.

“I love the game style over here. It seems like it’s a lot more attacking and it would be probably a lot more entertaining to watch with how there’s nowhere near as much congestion on the ground.”

Bolton has been recognised for his impressive form by being named in WA’s 25-man State squad to face Tasmania at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday along with Claremont teammates Ryan Neates and Darcy Cameron.

“I haven’t played State football previously,” Bolton said.

“I haven’t been in WA for long, but at the same time I would love the opportunity to represent the league and State at the same time.

“It’s a big honour to be recognised as one of those players who could possibly do that. It would be quite humbling.”

One of the key factors in Claremont’s big win over Swans was the effort in midfield, with the team recording 68 inside 50s.

“We’ve been competing pretty well in midfield as a group,” Bolton said.

“We identified that our inside 50s were a bit lower than what we wanted, so we made a few adjustments in the last couple of weeks to try and get that back on the incline and it was good to see that we put that into practice on the weekend with how many we were able to achieve.”

Tom Shanahan is another player who has had an immediate impact since coming into the team and has clamped down on some of the opposition’s more dangerous players.

“We’ve loved him coming into the side in the midfield because you rarely see a tagger, and it’s probably not that useful in today’s game as much, but we can send him to someone and be mindful that he can go and win his own ball,” Bolton said.

“He’s been fantastic since he came in.”

Claremont will look to continue its form when it hosts West Perth at the Showgrounds in Round 13, and will hoping to call upon captain Jake Murphy who missed the win over Swans with a quad injury.

“It’ll be good to hopefully get Murph back in a couple of weeks - the double bye should help that,” Bolton said.

“He’s obviously a contested machine and he wins us a lot of contested ball and clearances, which, obviously, is pivotal.”