The West Coast Eagles take on Collingwood at Collingwood Park in the South-west town on Saturday afternoon, and Braun says he can’t wait to get out there.
The veteran midfielder has had his regular knee cleanup, and as a result has been held out of all the intra-club games and the NAB Cup opener last weekend, so he’s desperate to get back onto the field of battle.
"I’ve just stuck to the plan put in place by the physios and the fitness staff – it took a lot longer to get going in the first six to seven weeks, but once you’re up and going they come along pretty quick," he said after training on Friday.
"It's just a general cleanup at the end of the year, but because it’s the third or fourth one on it it took a bit longer to heal and, obviously, with the amount of football I’ve played over the last 10 or 11 years it’s good to go slow."
The premiership midfielder said the West Coast engine-room, for so long the driving factor behind their success, would still be a powerhouse despite the loss of former skippers Chris Judd and Ben Cousins.
"I think so. You look at last year, Juddy played half-a-year with a sore groin and we missed Cuzzy for half-a-year as well, and we lost by one point, I think it was, against Port [three points in the 2nd Qualifying Final] so we’ve still got a load of talent. [Matt] Priddis, [Tyson] Stenglein, [Dean] Cox – a great ruckman – [Chad] Fletcher, [Andrew] Embley.
"We’ve got nothing to worry about. I think we’ve got the right mix and we’re looking forward to having a real good year.
"We shared the workload pretty good last year, and obviously I’ve forgotten Kerry [Daniel Kerr] there, number one at our club. So we’ve still got a very good side. We’ve got a lot of youth, but a lot of experience as well.”
