TO SAY TOBY Bedford is hungry to play a competitive game of football would be an understatement.
Since the end of the 2019 season, the 21-year-old has played just 11 legitimate matches at AFL or VFL level.
And in-between that has been a serious amount of training.
“I’m itching for a full season really,” Bedford told Melbourne Media.
“Obviously we’ve had practice matches, but they’ve been 16 on 16 or 14 on 14, so it doesn’t feel like a real game.
With COVID-19 dismantling the 2020 season, the VFL campaign was cancelled.
And after a nine-game start to the year in 2021, fate repeated.
Although those nine games didn’t give players much time to impress, Bedford shone brighter than most.
The speedy small forward came runner up in the Casey Demons’ Best and Fairest Award, and with a little bit of continuity, he could be right in the mix for a senior recall this season.
“I felt a lot more comfortable in the last two years,” Bedford said.
“It was my third year last year and I started to play some really good football.
“Unfortunately COVID messed it up and we weren’t able to play as many games as we wanted to, but I started to feel really comfortable in the way I was playing and started to build some really strong form.
“Hopefully this year we get an uninterrupted season at both levels so I can try to break into the side.”
Now into his fourth pre-season, Bedford is beginning to find the workload more manageable, which should hold him in good stead come Round 1.
“I reckon I’m way fitter than usual,” he said.
“Normally I come back and take a little bit to get used to it, but this time I’ve cruised into it a bit easier.
“Obviously it’s still pretty hard, but I feel like I get fitter quicker now because I’m a bit older and my body is getting used to it.
“My craft is definitely improving too.
“Just to learn off those boys (Alex Neal-Bullen, Charlie Spargo and Kysaiah Pickett) and get the experience that they had last year, especially in the big games, has been unreal.”
While Bedford wasn’t in the 23 to play in last year’s premiership, he was able to soak up the atmosphere in Perth, and turn that into motivation moving forward.
“It was helpful just because I was super stoked for those boys, I’m such good mates with them and I couldn’t be happier for them, but obviously we’re there witnessing it and we want to be part of it,” he said.
“I guess it’s a driving factor.
“You see what it takes to win those games and it just drives us now, the boys that weren’t playing, to hopefully this year go again and try and get into that team.”
