I still have a lot of good memories of the venue from my younger days and it’s also where I played my first ever senior game with the Lions.
It was back in Round 14 of 2007 and the Club was really struggling at the time. We hadn’t won a game for seven weeks and were coming up against reigning premiers the West Coast Eagles who were up and flying.
After a tough loss to Port Adelaide at home the previous week, the Club made about 5-6 changes to the side to take on the Eagles.
We ended up taking a pretty young side over to Perth - including myself and former rookie Will Hamill who had never played a senior game before - and no one really gave us a chance of winning. I think even the bookies had us at record long odds to get up.
But we pulled off a pretty memorable win which triggered a five game winning streak.
I can still remember the feeling in the rooms afterwards - it was just phenomenal.
This week we’re back playing the Eagles on their home turf, but I think it’s fair to say that neither side is in great form at the moment.
I guess the Club is in a pretty similar position now compared with Round 14 in 2007 and it’s without a doubt the toughest period I’ve had to go through during my four years at the Lions.
Here’s hoping that history can repeat itself and we can enjoy the long trip back from Perth and maybe salvage something from our last four games.
Our travel itinerary will be a bit different to usual this week considering Brisbane to Perth is the longest trip in the AFL.
We'll head over today (Thursday morning) and spend three nights in Perth whereas usually we spend just one - maybe two - nights when we travel interstate.
This will allow the boys some time to adjust after the six hour flight and do our regular schedule.
The extra time will also give me the opportunity to spend some time with the family which should be good.
