Only nine more sleeps until the AFL premiership season starts for the Brisbane Lions and we can’t wait.
You would think that this week would be pretty relaxing for us as we don’t play on the weekend, saving up for the following Saturday night when we play West Coast in Perth.
But it is actually busy for us.
We have a tradition at our club where the Chairman (Tony Kelly) puts on a dinner for all the players and fulltime staff from the club at the Gabba on the Monday night.
It sort of focuses us on the season ahead and what is required of everyone, and done so in a very supportive environment.
I reckon it’s a pretty good idea for any team to do that, no matter what grade you play.
On Tuesday we spent the whole day at the club training, and then had what we call the corporate season launch in the Legends Room at the Gabba at night.
All the big businesses and people who spend a lot of money to help the club come along, and the night is our way of saying welcome to the season and thanks for their support.
We love our members and supporters, but our corporate supporters are vitally important too.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we had a gym session and massage at the club, then a big group jumped on a bus to the Sunshine Coast, and some of us went up to Toowoomba.
The boys who went to the Sunny Coast got split into three groups and did superclinics at Kawana, Coolum and Pomona.
I was in the crew that went to Toowoomba and we had a great time meeting the kids and parents who came along.
Our reserves team is linked to the Sunshine Coast so it is good to get up there too. While it was a long drive for all of us after a couple of long days and nights, seeing the looks on the faces of the kids makes it all worthwhile.
We’ve got our last training session for four days this arvo, and our reses play Morningside in a practice match after we finish at Coorparoo.
Then we get three days off over the weekend, which will great to unwind and relax the mind.
We won’t relax too much though.
We fly to Perth on Thursday to prepare for the game against the Eagles and it will be fantastic if we can come back with the same result as last year.
If you can remember, nobody gave us a chance of beating them midway through last year and we went out and beat them by five goals.
Enjoy the last weekend without footy for the next six months, although if you’re like me, you’re probably itching for it to start.
Until next week…
- Jed
