Swifts Football Netball Club has continued to boost its senior football squad for the 2022 season.
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Returning to the club is Sam Chatfield, a player not unfamiliar with pulling on the teal, black and white.
Chatfield, 19, played in the Baggies' under-17 premiership team in 2017 and has most recently been part of the Hamilton Kangaroos in the Hampden league.
Chatfield said he was excited to return to the Swifts.
"I'm looking forward to coming back, playing local football and spending time with lots of people I know from growing up and being around the club," he said.
"I played most of my juniors through the Swifts.
"Playing locally hasn't been a big part of my senior football - but the ability to play with a lot of my mates is definitely exciting."
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Throughout his football career, Chatfield has been part of a number of representative teams, from Greater Western Victorian Rebels to the Victorian Indigenous squad.
Moving back into the Horsham and District league from the Hampden League will be something Chatfield will work on adjusting to.
"Other leagues can be faster paced and more difficult but it's good to come back to a level where you know you are going to enjoy your football no matter what," he said.
"It's a different type of football - I won't say one is better than the other."
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Chatfield works in the Grampians as a firefighter and would spend up to one hour and forty minutes, one way, to travel to training and home games.
"It's a big part of why I want to come back to the Swifts as well," he said.
"I was enjoying the football - it was good. Gerard FitzGerald was a big part of why I went down there.
"But just coming back and playing local football is going to take a bit of pressure off my work life and give me some hours back in my week."
At only the age of 19, some would be excused of thinking he was older given his experience within the circles of senior football.
"Though out my juniors I've seen a lot of the current Swifts team play - I played my first senior game for the Swifts when I was 14 I think so to go back and play senior football, as a senior, is pretty exciting," he said.
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