We've found that when we do, we do it well because the boys enjoy the time together.
When an opportunity like the split round arises, we had to take the chance for us to get that team bonding aspect that interstate clubs get every second week, which was a reason for the trip to Mackay.
We come to train, we come to play, but we don't often get on a plane and sit there for a couple of hours, and in a hotel we don't have to entertain ourselves with our teammates very often.
It's more a reason for us to do a mid-season trip, rather than just get the sunshine on the bodies.
The players are appearing refreshed, even though they spent a bit of time doing community work up there. They didn't just put their feet up, drink pina coladas and rub Banana Boat into themselves.
First of all, the main priority was to recharge the batteries, but they also got the chance to get back to the community and put some football back into a community that doesn't see a lot of it.
Ultimately, for the injured boys, it's a week where we didn't play and they haven't needed to play, so they've really gained a week, if anything. That's important – they're a week closer without having played a game.
I never got to have a week off during my playing career, and I didn't get to be a part of the split round.
State of Origin, however, is just fantastic. The opportunity to play with some of your Western Australian counterparts, who might be playing for other sides, and play in a side that is made up of the best Western Australians against the best South Australians or Victorians, is an honour you can't describe.
Obviously, that passion has been dissipated by the fact you have a side in Sydney, and two sides in South Australia, and the Western Australian clubs are predominantly made up of Western Australians.
I think there is more of a push from the interstate sides to play the State of Origin. The big question mark is when it will be played.
My left-field idea was playing it on a weekend during the finals series, or even Grand Final day before the game. I've heard someone mention it before that the disadvantage of that would be some players who finish round 22 have to hang around for four weeks of training.
But, to play State of Origin, I don't think that would be such a bugbear.
I think today's players are missing out. They talk about the great draft of Hodge, Ball and Judd – wouldn't it be great to see them all playing in the same side together?
Like the Dunstall-Lockett situation, when the first and third highest goal-kickers on record played together – you're never going to see it otherwise, and it would just be a great spectacle.
We've got the Swans this week, and it's really just the same old, same old with them. There have been people saying elements of Sydney are not as good as they have been, but they've got a few more injuries and have lost key players.
They're almost in an identical position to last year, and they have the second-best defence in the league. We know they don't score a lot, but a lot of sides don't score more than them.
They've lost two games by a point, and the games they have lost, they've lost by less than two kicks. Their style of football puts them in a position to win more games than they lose.
I think they are tracking along just as well as they have at this stage of the season in the past two years.
