![Fraser Menzies booted 70 goals for the New England Nomads to finish as AFL North West's leading goal-scorer for the 2023 season. Fraser Menzies booted 70 goals for the New England Nomads to finish as AFL North West's leading goal-scorer for the 2023 season.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/T7RGn6Wqupu9DPpBgesVjF/fa75677b-6d25-489d-b1ed-4f09fe8309fe.JPG/r0_226_5089_3087_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In his short time at the New England Nomads, gun forward Fraser Menzies experienced the highs and lows of sport.
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His first year with the Nomads in 2021 saw the finals cancelled due to the second lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2022 season, where the Nomads took out the AFL North West competition, was a mixed bag for the University of New England student.
He kicked a career-high 13 goals in the round five game against the now-defunct Moree Suns.
Then he missed a handful of games caring for his injured partner and then suffered a shoulder injury to himself.
Upon his return, he suffered a broken leg which ended his season.
He did, however, get to celebrate the Nomads' emphatic one-point premiership win alongside the rest of the squad.
Then when he got the chance to return to the field this year, he did it in fine form.
Menzies was the competition's leading goal-scorer with 70 from 12 matches, 20 in front of the second placed in Inverell's Noah O'Neill.
On three occasions he booted 11.
While the accolade was a great individual achievement, Menzies was just "grateful" to be on the field.
"It was more I wanted to get the best out of my football while I am not injured and appreciative that I am playing today," he said.
"When you spend so long on the sidelines, not playing sport or even being able to go for a run for six months, you have greater appreciation when you are just able to play, whether you play good or bad.
"That was a big thing and my outlook this season and it came with a few positives."
While the challenges faced at the Nomads were difficult ones, it was his love of the sport which kept him going.
Menzies grew up in Ganmain in the Riverina where Aussie Rules is a way of life before moving to Armidale to study Clinical Exercise Physiology.
So, signing up to play for the Nomads was a pretty easy decision to make.
"There's three leagues within 200 kilometres of travel so it is a pretty big area for AFL," Menzies said.
"I knew the footy [in New England] wouldn't be like it was back home but I was keen to play footy.
"I was never going to cross over to rugby, that is for sure."
But he sees positives in the sport in the North West region.
"Even from last year, I feel like the league has lifted again," he said.
"That is the funny part of the league. Yeah, it is not as good as the Riverina, that's a fact, but some of the players within the comp would be the good, if not great, players of the Riverina as well.
"The youth of the competition is getting better. I felt like a lot of young players this year stood out."
The atmosphere and camaraderie within clubs and across the competition is also different.
Menzies said the environment has given him the chance to reflect on how he approaches his game.
"The thing I like about the league is you sit back and have a drink after the game and you almost forget about the game kind of thing," he said.
"Whereas back home, because there is that added pressure - you have got three grades - you have got competition for spots.
"When you have a bad game you are thinking about it a bit.
"It took me a year or two before I started to realise it is not the end of the world if I have a bad game.
"The more I started to realise that, the better my performances became and more consistent with goals and playing."
He will head back to Wagga Wagga in December with plans to sign up to an AFL team in one of the Riverina competitions.
But the memories and learning experiences he has from his time in the town will go with him.
"It is pretty cruisy and pretty community-orientated," he said of the Nomads' club.
"I am just appreciative of the community, of the club and what they have to offer.
"You have your good and bad years but you can't do it without the people around you.
"It is sad that I have to leave but a new chapter is to come and it is good opportunity for me and my partner to experience the future."