Joel Hamling has expressed the difficult decision he was forced to make in leaving his Western Bulldogs Premiership teammates. 

Hamling was out of the Dogs team as late as round 18, but played every game from round 19 through to the winning Grand Final. 

The 23-year-old spoke on Tuesday at his press conference yesterday about his decision to return home for family reasons and elaborated further on the tough decision on Sports Today. 

‘It was hard. It was a hard few months there for me. I had a bit of deciding to do,’ he said. 

‘Obviously with winning the Premiership it was just a bit harder with the emotion of the team and the fairytale we had.

‘I didn’t take that lightly, but at the end of the day the biggest thing for me was family and friends.’

When asked if he knew when the Dockers played the Dogs in round three, Hamling quickly said: ‘Yeah, round three.’

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