The time is now for Lewis Jetta to fire up after an underwhelming debut season at the Eagles.

A mixture of form and injury saw the midfielder only play 12 games last year. The ex-Swan is hoping a positive pre-season will be the springboard to a better year.

Jetta also hopes to demonstrate why the Eagles were so keen to secure his services in the process.

Choosing to return to Western Australia

The pressure was on from the very beginning to have an instant impact last season. West Coast traded promising ruckman Callum Sinclair in a straight swap to obtain Lewis Jetta. Which most pundits thought was a win-win deal for all parties at the time.

Unlike a new draftee that is often given some time to find his feet at AFL level, the expectation was a Premiership player with over 100 games of experience would be ready to make an instant impact.

In his last year at the Swans, Jetta averaged 18.2 disposals per game. Year one at the Eagles saw this average drop to 12.7 disposals per match. Eagles coach Adam Simpson did give his new recruit every chance to find form but it just never seemed to click.

After returning to the Eagles line-up in round 22 the midfielder was again dropped for the Eagles home Elimination Final clash with the Western Bulldogs.

Lewis Jetta ready to move on

The 27 year old knows it was a disappointing season and is keen to make amends in 2017. His teammates have spoken positively about how hard Jetta has trained. The man himself is ready to put the disappointment of last year behind.

“I think this year is going to be totally different to last year. It wasn’t a great year for myself, so I just wanted to prove a point and come back in good shape and put in the hard yards. I’ll be the first one to say it took me a while to adjust to the style of game West Coast have. I just didn’t like the way it went last year.”

Lewis Jetta appears a certainty to be selected for the round one clash with North Melbourne. His hard work evidenced with strong pre-season performances with his trademark dash and skill on display.

With the Eagles tipped to be one of the big improvers this season, a fit and firing Lewis Jetta will certainly help.

by Liam Sheedy – contributor

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