Throughout his nine-year tenure at the club, the Swans’ number nine has experienced the extremes of playing AFL football, from the depths of overcoming three knee reconstructions to the euphoria of kicking the matching winning goal in the 2012 Grand Final.
The 29-year-old, who was recently named in the 2013 All-Australian squad, told media on Tuesday afternoon that last year’s premiership success had bolstered his confidence heading into the start of this season.
“I guess winning a premiership you sort of draw a bit of confidence out of it,” Malceski said.
“I just had a big pre-season and I really worked on getting my run back and my hardness and I guess it’s sort of flowed into this year.
“There are a lot of areas I need to improve on and they’re something I’ll work on this weekend.”
Despite missing the best part of three seasons with serious knee injuries, Malceski is now playing some of his most consistent football and has played every match since round 15, 2012.
This year, Malceski leads the competition for rebound 50s with 184, which is more than 60 ahead of his nearest opponent in Carlton’s Andrew Walker.
Now in arguably career-best form, Malceski said he was feeling good about his football.
“My body has just felt good most games,” he said.
“I’ve just been recovering pretty well and just going out there and playing footy and enjoying it, which is the important thing.”
Sydney Swans coach John Longmire sung the defender’s praises earlier this week, describing the defender’s resilience throughout this career as ‘remarkable’
“I think it’s one of the more remarkable stories in football,” the Swans coach said about Malceski.
“He’s had three knee reconstructions and to be still playing today, and was in the All-Australian squad of 40, is a real credit to his mental strength and his ability to be able to overcome hurdles and still play some quality football.”
Longmire added that Malceski was one of the team’s most important players in the midst of this finals series.
“At his best he’s a real quality rebounding half-back flanker and one of the better ones in the competition when he’s playing well,” Longmire said.
“His run and carry is enormous and we’ll need that this week.”
While proud of reaching his milestone game this week, Malceski said his 150th game would take a back seat to the Swans’ challenge against Carlton on Saturday night, who enter the match in top form following a come-from-behind victory over Richmond.
“They were relentless (against Richmond),” Malceski said.
“They played some really good footy and they looked like they were out of it in the second quarter and they bounced back and played some really good footy and deserved the win.”
The running half back said the Swans didn’t dwell on last Friday night’s 54-point loss to Hawthorn in the qualifying final, and have instead turned their attention to shutting down the Blues this weekend.
“We got over it pretty quickly,” Malceski said about the loss.
“We had the meeting yesterday and just went through what we need to work on and we’re all really excited about training today and playing the Blues this week.
“We’re definitely looking forward to bouncing back this week and getting back to the sort of footy we can play.”
“We need to bounce back, so it’s going to be a good game to watch.”
