Weedon back at Tigerland

By Ken Casellas

Gerrick Weedon has returned to Perth after three years in Derby and has been training with Claremont for the past two weeks in a bid to return to league football.

The robust, strongly-built 24-year-old could return to action in the reserves side within the next couple of weeks.

Weedon, who has the rare distinction of playing in five premiership sides with Claremont, took a break from city football at the end of 2012 and has been working at the Kimberley Regional Prison as an Aboriginal education worker as well as enjoying himself playing for the Derby Tigers in the West Kimberley League competition.

He was the Derby captain last year and was the outstanding midfielder in the competition, winning the 2015 Kevin Bullen Medal as the fairest-and-best player in the league.

Weedon, a strong-marking, hard-tackling and versatile player, has been a member of five Claremont premiership sides, the colts in 2009, the reserves in 2010, the league in 2011 and 2012 as well as the Foxtel Cup in 2012.

He was chosen by the West Coast Eagles in the 2009 national draft and was delisted at the end of the 2012 season. He played in nine NAB Cup matches and made one AFL appearance, against Essendon at the Docklands, wearing the No. 44 jumper of his hero and former Eagles star David Wirrpanda. He also wore No. 44 for Claremont, for whom he has played 47 senior matches.

A former Broome player and a student at Clontarf for two years, Weedon represented WA in the national under-18 carnival in 2009 and was also chosen in the WAFL colts team of the year that season.

He completed a mentoring course at TAFE and has a firm belief that he can help young people with family problems, particularly problems involving alcohol. He is a strong advocate for young indigenous people to attend school regularly and one of his main aims is to assist youngsters to follow their dreams.

Wheedon pictured here playing for Claremont in 2012 (taken from perthnow.com)