 He spent much of 2001 playing in Carlton's stand-alone reserves team in the Victorian Football League (VFL), where he won the J. J. Liston Trophy for best and fairest.He was delisted at the end of the 2001 season.Lured to South Australia by West Adelaide in an effort to rekindle his AFL career, Backwell quickly shone at this lower level of competition, finishing fourth in the Magarey Medal.