THE 25-YEAR anniversary gala function was absolutely fantastic and a great night for the club.

Just to learn about history and culture of the club was amazing.

Some of the stories that were told were unbelievable, especially the tales of when South Melbourne first moved to Sydney.

It’s on nights like that that you realise how much the club means to you.

Sydney Swans have given me so much. Initially when I did come out here I struggled to get a feel for the place, a feel for the game, a feel for the club because obviously I had grown up in Kerry and watched my dad play for them.

George Stone showed me loads of tapes about the history of the club when I got here and I suppose that’s where I got my passion and my knowledge of the history of the club.

I came to the club when I was very young so I’ve done a big part of my growing up here. I don’t know if I am grown up yet … I think I’m just a big little boy but it’s definitely helped me to grow up and be a bigger boy at least.

The night after the function, some of the present players and the past players got together for a few drinks. That’s where I heard a lot more stories, much of which I can’t repeat. It was great to meet all the club’s past players.

We had the weekend of the split round off. I did nothing really, apart from stuff around the house. Because my mum is coming over I’ve a lot of handy jobs to do around the place like painting and a lot of cleaning.

I have a little dog called Molly and she had turned the backyard upside down. I did a bit of a clean up job on that but I still have a good bit to do.

The last thing my mum said to me last year when she was leaving was “make sure you paint that front door and gate” and I still haven’t done it. If it’s not done by the time she gets here I’m in big, big trouble. I really will have to get a few of the boys over to help.

The day of the match (against Collingwood) I didn’t go into the coaches’ box because every time I’ve gone in there we’ve lost. I know we still lost, but again I’m being superstitious and I reckon if I went in there it would have been a worse loss.

I did a lot of media on Saturday during the day, so I was quite busy. During the game I sat in the players’ enclosure with Crouchy (Jared Crouch) and Nick Davis, who were also injured. Having to sit and watch the game there isn’t a lot of fun to tell you the truth.

It’s frustrating in the stand because things look a lot easier from where you’re sitting. You just want to be out there helping the boys. I don’t know if me or Crouchy or Davo would have been a help but you still feel hopeless. You’d nearly prefer not to be there.

Of the three of us, I’m not a good spectator. Crouchy won’t like me saying this but he’s had a bit of experience doing it because of injury, so he’s more used to it. Davo and I are a bit opinionated when we’re watching I suppose.

You could see that they were reading our play very easily. We were very predictable. Our ball use was terrible. We turned the ball over so much. I’ve never seen that happen before. It was almost like we didn’t care.

It was mind boggling to tell you the truth. That was the most frustrating thing because we were turning the ball over and giving them easy opportunities to score. When our intensity’s down, which it was, it’s on par with our ball use, it’s shocking. When our intensity is high our ball use is usually good.

We really looked like we lacked hunger. Our consistency hasn’t been good and that’s a hunger thing. It’s hard to play AFL consistently. Because we’ve had two or three long years and been successful you have to question whether that hunger’s there any more.

I wish I knew if we could get that hunger back. It's not something you can physically go and do, it’s a mental attitude – to want to help your team mates and do the right thing and be a team and not an individual and go out and play for each other, which we’ve been doing very hot and cold this year.

At half-time I had to do a live cross with Channel 10 but I ran into the rooms for a few minutes before I went into the studio. I wanted to talk to a few of the boys. I had a good chat with Nick Malceski, but I probably can’t disclose what I said.

Then I did the live cross. If I’m honest, it’s a difficult thing to do. You don’t want to give too much away. I was so frustrated but you have to stay cool and be clear in your mind what you want to say.

A lot of the questions were about Martin Clarke (Collingwood’s Irish debutant). I would have loved to get the chance to play against him but it wasn’t to be.

At the end of the match we (the injured players) went down to the rooms. It was like a morgue. It was like someone had died down there. You feel like s--- going down there. You feel like you’re hurting like them but you just wanted to be out there helping them. It’s not a good feeling when you play like that. There’s no need to tell a team when they’ve played badly, they just know.

On Sunday I did a fundraising event for the Heart Foundation, which kind of took my mind off the game. It was a skywalk at Centrepoint Tower.

The view from up there was unbelievable but obviously you’re a long way up and I’m not that good with heights. I was really nervous to be honest but once we got up there we were all strapped up so it was okay. It took me a while to lean over the edge for a look.

It was even more scary than kissing the Blarney Stone. When you do that you’re hung upside down at the top of a castle and you have to kiss the underside of the rock and all you can see is the ground beneath you.

Eight people did the walk with me and we raised $1500 which will go towards our fundraising for the New York marathon on November the 4th. I really appreciate all the people that did it with me (see picture). It was a great start to our fundraising.

As for my knee, rehab is a slow process. I jogged this week for the first time but it wasn’t good. I’ve been doing a lot of upper body work with weights and rowing. I’m also doing a lot on the cross trainer and the bike. But I want to be careful that I don’t get too big. I’ll leave that to Micky O’Loughlin.

He always says that he’s got the best guns in the club. The best guns with the best abs, that’s Micky O! He’s got the package.

Rehab is a bit frustrating. You do feel like you’re on the outer, when the boys are training and you’re just watching. You just feel out of it a bit because you’re not part of the training. I’m taking it slow though. I want to make sure my knee’s right before I come back so I can play the back end of the season. I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Please help Tadhg raise money for the Heart Foundation here