IT'S been a big couple of weeks but we’re ready for another tough game this weekend, against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

For me personally it’s also been a hectic time, and I was really happy to sign a three year contract with the Club last week.

It was less than two years ago that I was drafted to the Swans, and I have to admit my first thoughts when I was drafted were that I would have to move away from home, and I didn’t know anyone up here. I knew of Ted Richards because he went to my school, but I didn’t know him personally.

It was pretty daunting moving at the end of last year when I’d finished school in Melbourne. It was a new city, and new people, but the best thing about it I was able to fit in quickly because of the environment and culture we have here at the Club.

The culture is impossible to describe, but all our values and behaviours come from it. 

While it’s hard to find the words for it, the culture was there for everyone to see on the field last Saturday night, when Brett Kirk played his last game at the SCG.

There was no way anyone was going to put in a bad effort. There was a mutual understanding that we would give everything we had, and it was highlighted during the match.

Of course you want to have that effort every week, but it doesn’t always work out. But the culture and the leadership system also helps us deal with it.

We had a bad three or four week patch round the Melbourne game, everyone was getting hammered and everyone was disappointed. But the leaders, guys such as Adam Goodes and Brett and Rhyce Shaw and Ryan O’Keefe and Jude Bolton, stood up strong and drove the whole group and made sure we didn’t give up. They made us keep fighting and keep finding something.

Sticking together was really important. We talked through it and we knew we had a lot of upside.

I have a huge amount of respect for those nine guys in our leadership group, and when you go out with them on the same team, you definitely want to show them you are as committed as them. You don’t want to let them down.

I remember earlier in the year, we were playing Essendon and I had to pick up Kirky’s man, which was Jobe Watson, and I didn’t do it right and let him get a few touches.

I really felt like I let Kirky down and it stuck with me for a few weeks. I was hanging out for the opportunity to prove to him I was able to step in and help him. That sums up the culture and respect we have here for each other.

That is the strength of the club, and is a driving force at the moment behind the way we are going.