Mid-season break a chance to refresh and refocus

THE mid-season bye is always a welcome break from the demands of training and playing.

Every player in the AFL looks forward to that small respite.

By the time you get to this point in the year, you have been through four months of pre-season training, played maybe 14 or 15 games (including NAB Challenge) and the body feels a bit weary.

Some of the guys can be a little banged up and there would be relatively few players going into games without some sort of niggle.

But as much as anything, it’s a chance to just chill out and refresh the mind.

I headed down south with a few of the West Coast players and not having training or match preparation to deal with was pleasant.

Don’t get me wrong – we all love what we do and wouldn’t change it for the world – but it’s good just to relax for a few days.

Unfortunately, when I got back to Perth I was crook for couple of days, but it’s good to be back on the track again.

Now I am just looking forward to getting back into the groove and the second half of the year. We are in a pretty good position at 9-3 and in second place on the ladder, but we know we have a lot of hard work in front of us.

One of our main targets at the start of the year was to improve on last season and we still have to do that. In 2014 we finished ninth with 11 wins, so we have to eclipse last year’s effort and – if and when that happens – we will re-assess things.

The first challenge is against Melbourne in Darwin and we are under no illusions about how difficult that is going to be. The Dees took strong momentum into their break with a great win against Geelong down at the Cattery so they will be full of confidence.

We all know how imposing Geelong’s record is on their home track and like us, Melbourne is a young, evolving team with some exciting talent – as well as a few experienced heads who have had an impact this year.

For us, we just need to make sure we pick up where we left off – after a great Friday night win against Richmond.

We look forward to experiencing another venue and catching up with our fans in Darwin.