AFL star Zac Langdon on girlfriend's cancer ordeal: 'I was trying to be strong for her'

In the space of three months, AFL star Zac Langdon received some of the best news of his life - and some of the most devastating.

Last November, the WA local realised his lifelong dream of being drafted to a club, joining the Greater Western Sydney Giants as a mature-age forward. 

Just months earlier, he’d been sitting in a hospital room beside his girlfriend Eli Suleska as a doctor diagnosed her with Hodgkin Lymphoma.

“When I heard, I just looked across at Eli and her face just crumbled and she started crying,” Langdon, 22, recalls in an interview with GWS recruiter and AFL journalist Emma Quayle. 

Now, the young couple have reflected on the ordeal in an interview with Fox Footy’s On the Mark, which aired on Wednesday night.

The first sign of Suleska’s cancer had appeared two weeks after her 21st birthday party last August, when she experienced shoulder pain, then increasing difficulty in breathing.

However, Suleska was adamant he pursue his AFL dream.

Looking back, Langdon is glad he listened to her.

He describes draft night as “one of the best feelings”, adding, “If not for Eli saying what she said ... I would never have kept going with it.”

For Suleska, Langdon getting the call from the Giants was the positivity they both needed. 

Though she had to stay in Perth to complete her treatment while Langdon relocated to Sydney, she has since made the move across the country to join him.

You can read Emma Quayle's full article about Zac and Eli on the GWS Giants website.