I’ll start with our last game in Sydney on Saturday night and work my way forward from there.
I can tell you we went there absolutely determined to win.
We were really keen to turn it around - we were really motivated to beat them because they have downed us so many times in recent years.
We would have got a lot of satisfaction out of achieving that in our last game.
But it wasn’t to be. It has been a long season with an even longer pre-season and once they got a few quick goals on us, we seemed to go really flat.
Blokes stopping thinking about their role and went into survival mode and that is not how we play our best footy. The result was embarrassing.
They are one of the strongest sides over the ball tackling-wise and it was a real wake-up call for us in some ways.
Then came the message on Sunday night that we were needed for a meeting at the club on Monday, which was really unusual.
We all know what happened next, with Leigh retiring.
I learnt a lot from Leigh from the moment I joined the club.
I found him to be one of those coaches who always had you under scrutiny, which was good for my footy.
He focused on being our consciences, rather than a father figure, and his little observations about on and off field stuff were always on the mark.
I have often struggled with my football-to-life balance, putting too much into my football or too much into my life. He was always quickly onto helping me get the balance righted, which was very valuable.
He will be missed by the boys and has left the club in a really good position for the future.
I still had my review with Leigh on Tuesday and got to reflect on my season personally.
I’ve already written here before that I was really disappointed not to play the 22 games, and obviously team success is what we were all chasing, but it was a career best year for me which was a massive positive.
Hopefully I’ve laid a good base now for the next few years.
I took a lot of confidence from Leigh saying he didn’t have anything but positives about my first half of the season.
I know myself that there was a block of games after that where I got pounded for a few goals.
I found I got turned inside out a few times and my agility was not as good as it has been, which might have had something to do with the groin issues I had through the pre-season.
They are areas I will definitely be working on over summer.
Later that day came the news that Vossy was coming back to the club as coach.
Playing alongside him was an unbelievable experience, and it’s only now when I look back at the premiership sides that I realise just how good they really were.
Playing alongside the likes of Vossy and Leppa made the transition from AFLQ to AFL level so much easier.
The fact that Vossy is still really just out of the game will be a real benefit to him and us in his new role as coach.
Hopefully this time next year we will all be very busy, but for this season we will have to watch other teams experience the fun of finals action.
I think it looks like being a Geelong-Hawthorn grand final – the Western Bulldogs are a bit hot and cold, although I would like to see North Melbourne make the big day.
I have got a lot of respect for the way they go about things and what they have achieved.
As for my annual leave, I don’t plan on doing anything special. We have our club champion night right in the middle of the holidays, so it is difficult to get over to Europe and have enough time with the way that falls.
We have a trip to Bali in October, so we’ll look forward to that instead.
I’m also really looking forward to kicking back and heading down to the coast to do some surfing. I haven’t been able to go since I did my ankle two-thirds of the way through the season.
