Image: Con Deves
Injury can be an emotionally isolating experience for a footballer, especially when the highs of professional football are replaced with long stints of rehab away from a club environment.
But former Melbourne City striker Wade Dekker has explained that he is focused on working hard throughout the season ahead with Green Gully after being given an opportunity by coach Arthur Papas to showcase his ability once more, and with that may come a passage back into the A-League.
After parting ways with Melbourne City in April 2016 carrying a bad ankle injury, Dekker was clubless until joining Gully ahead of the 2017 NPL season.
Swapping the blue colours he was previously accustomed to at Melbourne City and Northcote City for the green of Gully, his signing provided Papas another option up front following the departure of target man Liam Boland to Hume City.
The 22-year-old spoke of the difficulty of finding a way back into A-League contention after working his way back from the injury.
“I was doing a lot of rehab, with my ankle still recovering after being released,” Dekker said.
“I didn’t recover from that properly until about September.
“Between September and January I was trying to get another A-League contract.”
With the league starting in late September and options overseas not panning out the forward found it hard to secure a contract.
Deciding to test options in the NPL, Dekker highlighted the club environment at Gully as a major factor behind his signing.
“The whole professionalism of the club. Their environment, Arthur Papas and how he runs training sessions and the whole coaching staff there, they do a great job in keeping the standards high and that really resonated with me.
“I wanted to keep my standards high after coming from Melbourne City.
“For me it has been quite easy to be honest [adjusting to the semi-professional level], because of the way that Green Gully is run.”
Making the move to Green Gully Reserve from some of the best footballing facilities in the country, Dekker said that he’d been happy with the standards of the NPL club.
“It’s not full-time training but we’re training three to four times a week so it’s still there that professionalism.
“It’s a little step down because it’s not every day, but other than that I couldn’t ask for a better club.”
Gully kicked off their season with a disappointing 3-0 defeat against champions Bentleigh Greens though Dekker looked to the positives with himself, Matthew Breeze and Nick Krousoratis all seeing minutes after lengthy injury absences.
He acknowledges that a slow start to the season may be a result of the players taking a while to adjust, but expects the squad to be fit and firing as the campaign continues.
“I think a lot of us took a lot of positives [out of the contest],” he said.
“Although the result wasn’t what we wanted, it was still a good hit out.”
The young striker looked to having a solid season in the NPL as his focus for the time being, with a return to the top flight in Australia a hopeful end product of his efforts.
“I’ll work hard and hard work is what got me to the A-League in the first place, so who knows what can happen with that, but right now my focus is on Gully and having a good season with them.
“If the team does well then that’s what I’m happy with, I think everyone benefits when the team does well.”