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WEST COAST recruit Brendon Ah Chee is excited by the challenge of helping to fill the midfield void left by retiring champions Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis.
The 23-year-old former Port Adelaide midfielder will return to his native Perth after agreeing to a deal on Tuesday that sent both Ah Chee and the Power's 2018 fourth-round selection (received from Hawthorn via the Jarman Impey trade) to West Coast in exchange for the Eagles' 2018 third-round pick.
The No.45 pick in the 2011 NAB AFL Draft, Ah Chee played 27 games in six seasons with Port Adelaide.
He managed just five appearances this season despite winning the Power's SANFL best and fairest and piloting them to a Grand Final, which they lost by one point to Sturt.
Ah Chee told NAB AFL Trade Radio on Wednesday that he'd sensed during the pre-season that he faced "a pretty tough year" to break into the Port Adelaide line-up, let alone gain the midfield time he craved.
And he was right, with Port suffering relatively few injuries and its running brigade driving it to the finals.
"I thought my performance in the SANFL was really good, and good enough to get selected, but it just didn't work out that way," Ah Chee said.
He acknowledged that his exposure at AFL level might have become even more limited following Port's recent acquisition of star runners Tom Rockliff and Steven Motlop.
Ah Chee was desperate for a fresh start at a club that could provide him with more opportunities to showcase his talents.
His management spoke to a few clubs but Ah Chee said he was "really keen to go back home" and was relieved to secure a one-year deal with West Coast, which he described as "the perfect fit".
After discussions with Eagles coach Adam Simpson and list manager Brady Rawlings, Ah Chee was particularly eager about the prospect of trying to replace Brownlow medallists Mitchell and Priddis, both supreme inside midfielders.
"(They) left two holes in the midfield for mature bodies coming in, so I was dealing with (Eagles list manager) Brady Rawlings about that sort of stuff, where he saw me playing and where I could fit into the team. He was saying we need that mature body coming in to help out the midfield," he said.
"Then I met with (coach) Adam Simpson and he said the same thing, (and) spoke about the club and the culture, and the way he was talking about it just fit really well with what I want.
"It was just a really, really comfortable feeling when I went to meet him at the club."
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