That was my first and only game at the hallowed ground, although I’m hoping to double my tally there this Saturday when we play the Western Bulldogs.
It was something I definitely wanted to do in my career and it was a fair time coming.
I had been in the AFL for a few years and even through the State under-age system I never had the chance to play on the ‘G’.
The closest I got was the 1996 grand final when I experienced the biggest game of the year for the first time as a kid.
That was a great experience and I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like out in the middle when the ground is full.
There were about 50,000 there last year for the Collingwood game and you sensed the ground was still only half full.
I have good memories of the place because we had such a good win, even if I did hurt myself a bit.
The changerooms, warm-up area and other facilities are probably the best of the ‘away’ grounds in the league.
Telstra Dome and some of the other grounds are fairly similar, but there seems a bit more room to move with every aspect of the ‘G’.
We have now won four games in a row and go into the match against the Bulldogs with a 7-4 record.
Despite our recent successes, the atmosphere around the club has stayed pretty much the same – and I’m sure that’s just the way the coaches like it.
Obviously when you are winning everyone is a little bit happier, especially the coaches, but no-one is getting carried away.
In saying that, everyone is very confident because both the seniors and reserves are playing a lot of good footy at the moment.
A lot of the guys with Suncoast have put their hands up should a change be required due to injury or form. Everyone just seems to be in a really good place.
I’m relatively confident of playing.
I did all the running and everything last Friday and thought about playing against Freo, but in the end we decided to give the hamstring another week.
It was a 50-50 call, but given my history, I thought it better to play it safe and miss one game rather than risk losing three or four weeks.
