This is the third and final update of his diary as the team trains in Italy before heading back to Australia.
Brayshaw also shines the spotlight on a teammate every day and highlights some funny moments on tour, as well as some players who impress him across the trip.
Day 11, April 14 – Italy
OUR FIRST full day in Italy started with a gym session, but I couldn't do a lot because my corkie is still giving me a bit of grief.
I managed to get some work done on my upper body, though, so it was nice to be able to get something out of the morning.
After that we headed to Lake Como, about an hour's drive from our base at the Australian Institute of Sport's European Training Centre in Gavirate.
As soon as we arrived at Lake Como it was pretty clear why all the big celebrities, including George Clooney, have houses there or visit regularly for holidays. It's a stunning location, with lots of water, nice houses and cafes.
Tour diary: part one
Tour diary: part two
We did plenty of walking around the Lake and took a lot of photos throughout the day. It was also a chance to get in my first real pizza, when we sat down with a few of the boys and enjoyed the traditional Italian cuisine.
Mine was pretty basic – some ham, cheese and tomato – but I'm pretty sure eating it in Italy made it taste much better. I was nearly finished mine by the time Jake Lever started his, after he had to shell about 30 mussels that were loaded on top of the thin base.
More food came later on with a visit to a local restaurant for dinner before getting some much-needed sleep in ahead of a few busy final days on tour.
Spotlight on: Liam Duggan. Purely because Liam has been an avid reader of the blog, and today asked for a spotlight. It's very out of character for Liam, given he's such a humble and modest guy, so we had to include it. In all seriousness though, I've known Liam since Vic Metro's under-16s side and I'm really looking forward to playing with him through this year's championships.
Day 12, April 15 – Italy
My thigh was still a little painful so I sat out this morning's training session, which was at a local soccer field about 15 minutes from our headquarters.
Because of that I trained with the rehabilitation group, which today was run by Jake Lever, who continues his comeback from a knee reconstruction at the end of last year. Jake led the way with some core work and boxing, which was pretty tough - even tougher considering Jake almost represented Australia in boxing at the 2012 Olympics.
But the main group still had us covered, as they were put through the hardest session I've seen in my time in the Academy.
They were made to go one-on-one and had some proper contested training. From the side something I took note of was Peter Wright's efforts. For the biggest guy in our team he was leading the way with the lap running, which impressed me.
After training we headed into central Milan, where we went off in groups for some shopping, eating, and free time to check out the world's fashion capital. I walked around with Liam Griffiths, Hugh Goddard, Lachie Weller and Brad Walsh, and we managed to see a few of the sights.
Just before dinner, as we met up as a group, Lachie had an interested admired in the city square.
An Italian girl came over to Michael Ablett, the AFL's Academy's manager, and asked if she could get a photo with Lachie, who was looking very Milan in a striped shirt and Ralph Lauren jumper draped on his shoulders.
Unluckily for Lachie, one of the boys captured video evidence of the event, so he couldn't deny it happened.
Spotlight on: Jermaine Miller-Lewis. During training I whacked on the boxing gloves and had a go with Jermaine, and it's fair to say he had me covered. He's a relaxed guy off the field but when he starts competing he's a different personality, so it was good to go up against him and try to sneak a little jab in here and there.
From left, Daniel Capiron, Matt Hammelmann, Hugh Goddard, Matthew Ah Siu, Liam Griffiths, Lachie Weller and Angus Brayshaw on Mounte Lema. Picture: Callum Twomey
Tour diary: part two
We did plenty of walking around the Lake and took a lot of photos throughout the day. It was also a chance to get in my first real pizza, when we sat down with a few of the boys and enjoyed the traditional Italian cuisine.
Mine was pretty basic – some ham, cheese and tomato – but I'm pretty sure eating it in Italy made it taste much better. I was nearly finished mine by the time Jake Lever started his, after he had to shell about 30 mussels that were loaded on top of the thin base.
More food came later on with a visit to a local restaurant for dinner before getting some much-needed sleep in ahead of a few busy final days on tour.
Spotlight on: Liam Duggan. Purely because Liam has been an avid reader of the blog, and today asked for a spotlight. It's very out of character for Liam, given he's such a humble and modest guy, so we had to include it. In all seriousness though, I've known Liam since Vic Metro's under-16s side and I'm really looking forward to playing with him through this year's championships.
Day 12, April 15 – Italy
My thigh was still a little painful so I sat out this morning's training session, which was at a local soccer field about 15 minutes from our headquarters.
Because of that I trained with the rehabilitation group, which today was run by Jake Lever, who continues his comeback from a knee reconstruction at the end of last year. Jake led the way with some core work and boxing, which was pretty tough - even tougher considering Jake almost represented Australia in boxing at the 2012 Olympics.
But the main group still had us covered, as they were put through the hardest session I've seen in my time in the Academy.
They were made to go one-on-one and had some proper contested training. From the side something I took note of was Peter Wright's efforts. For the biggest guy in our team he was leading the way with the lap running, which impressed me.
After training we headed into central Milan, where we went off in groups for some shopping, eating, and free time to check out the world's fashion capital. I walked around with Liam Griffiths, Hugh Goddard, Lachie Weller and Brad Walsh, and we managed to see a few of the sights.
Just before dinner, as we met up as a group, Lachie had an interested admired in the city square.
An Italian girl came over to Michael Ablett, the AFL's Academy's manager, and asked if she could get a photo with Lachie, who was looking very Milan in a striped shirt and Ralph Lauren jumper draped on his shoulders.
Unluckily for Lachie, one of the boys captured video evidence of the event, so he couldn't deny it happened.
Spotlight on: Jermaine Miller-Lewis. During training I whacked on the boxing gloves and had a go with Jermaine, and it's fair to say he had me covered. He's a relaxed guy off the field but when he starts competing he's a different personality, so it was good to go up against him and try to sneak a little jab in here and there.
From left, Daniel Capiron, Matt Hammelmann, Hugh Goddard, Matthew Ah Siu, Liam Griffiths, Lachie Weller and Angus Brayshaw on Mounte Lema. Picture: Callum Twomey
Day 13, April 16 – ItalyIf this wasn't the best day of the tour, it was very close.
We started with a drive through the Switzerland border to climb up the Mounte Lema, one of the Swiss Alps. We did a longer walk last year during an AIS-AFL Academy camp in New Zealand, but this was much, much steeper the whole way and was very challenging.
After two hours we reached the summit, where we had a great three-course meal and enjoyed terrific views of both Italy and Switzerland out either window.
A few of the boys hadn't seen snow before so they were lapping it up, and then after lunch we all went to the top and had a full-on snow fight. Daniel Capiron had a bunker set up and threw a fair few, while Liam Griffiths, Clem Smith, Jaden McGrath and Ryan Lim were among it.
We were fortunate to catch the cable car back down the mountain, although Mac Bower might disagree. Watching his horrified face as we were suspended mid-air brought a smile to everyone else's.
Mick had secured tickets to the Olympia Milano and Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball match in Milan, so that was our next destination. The atmosphere exceeded my expectations completely, and the crowd played a big part in what was an eventful night.
We had seats right in front of the most vibrant (or unruly) section of the Milan fan base, and although we had their t-shirts on, we were all supporting Maccabi because Australian Joe Ingles was playing for them. This was much to the disgust and hatred of the rest of the crowd, who quickly realised what was going on.
Within minutes of our cheers we were being abused by the crowd, and things were even pelted at our group. Liam Duggan, Jake Lever and even Kevin Sheehan copped little balls of aluminium throughout the night.
All's well that end's well, however, and after the game Joe – an AIS graduate himself – was kind enough to come out and speak to us for a few minutes after his team won the game in overtime. I remember watching the Olympics when he played for Australia, so it was cool he was able to spare a few moments.
Fortunately we made it back to the bus without incident, and headed for the long trip home.
Spotlight on: Sean McLaren. Some of Sean's snowball targets were questionable – including AFL.com.au's Cal Twomey – but his place as resident bus DJ was appreciated on the many hours we spent being driven around.
The Academy meets Australian basketballer Joe Ingles after a match in Milan. Picture: Callum Twomey
Day 14, April 17 – Italy
Our last full day on tour was reasonably relaxed and we got a sleep-in after a late night at the basketball.
I was able to rejoin training with some contact work before another stint in the gym, and I'm confident I'll be able to train with the Dragons next week and be right to play in my first game back.
Our afternoon was spent winding down before the big couple of flights tomorrow, and we wrapped up our meetings with the coaches.
In those meetings we watched game vision from the MCG game against Collingwood from two weeks ago, and Mick Ablett encouraged me to keep going the way I've started the year and to take that form into the national championships.
A few of the boys took in the Italian spirit with a game of soccer in the afternoon in our courtyard, and as usual Christian Petracca thought he was Cristiano Ronaldo.
We joined the parents and supporter group for a farewell function at their hotel – a fitting end to a great tour.
Spotlight on: Duom Dawam. Throughout the tour all of the boys have been obsessed by the iPhone application Super Stickman Golf 2. It's got us through bus trips and flights and anywhere with some Bluetooth connection, and involves unrealistic mini-golf in outer space (simple things). You can get up to eight players in one game and it has made for rowdy bus trips. Except for Duom. He's by a country mile the worst stick golfer I've seen.
Day 15-16, April 18-19 – in-transit from Italy to Melbourne
We departed Italy on Friday morning and arrived back in Melbourne on Saturday night absolutely drained from a long flight but feeling very lucky we got to experience the last two weeks.
We took new plenty of new sights and cultures, trained really hard, played against the European Legion and felt very grateful for the opportunity to do it.
All of us have things we can take back to Australia from the trip – be it the discipline required, the attention to detail, on-field improvements and a glimpse into what being a footballer might be like day-in day-out.
I'm looking forward to playing with and against everyone in the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, which start in about a month, and then seeing where things head after that for my 30 teammates.
These guys have become some of my really good mates, and I think we'll all always look out for each other and see where each of us goes with our footy because we were able to share this trip.
