HAVING played in two Grand Finals on theback of mid-season trips to warmer climates in recent years, Collingwood developmentmanager Alan Richardson is hoping the Pies' 2007 Queensland experience will deliver similarresults.

Last year, the playing group was given timeoff across the mid-season break, and they proceeded to fall into a three-matchlosing slump from rounds 13 to 15, before dropping another two games afortnight later. They were then bundled out of the finals in the first week.

In 2002 and 2003, the club took the playersto Darwin for thesplit-round hiatus, and the result was promising – seven wins in 2002, 11 in2003, and Grand Finals appearances in both. 

"We were really keen to get away soour blokes can be together as a group, because we thought that wasimportant," Richardsontold collingwoodfc.com.au, on day twoof the club's four-day trip to Mackay.

"There are some issues there, becausemost clubs have a lot of interstate players on their books and we're reallymindful of the fact they don't see their families all that often, and in thelast couple of years, this has been seen as a chance to do that.

"But we felt that, given that we don'ttravel as often, we don't get away all that often as a group in a more relaxedenvironment than at the footy club.

While some players from rival clubs haveexpressed desire to either shelve the mid-season week off or fill it with Stateof Origin football, Richardson believes the break is required with thedemanding nature of today's game.

"I think it's a terrific opportunityfor the players to have a break. The game now, and it probably always has been,but certainly now, is incredibly fast-paced," he said.

"The boys really do look forward togetting out there and having a bit of a spell, so for the 11 weeks after thatand leading up to finals, in terms of testing we do, the evidence suggeststhey've been much better for it."

As far as last season's capitulation isconcerned, Richardson said the Queensland trip has provided a good chancefor discussion about avoiding such an outcome this time around.

"We had a terrific chat about thatlast night. We have used this opportunity to talk about (last year), and not somuch looking back, but what an opportunity we've created for ourselves now withwhere we are," he said.

"The group is really committed to makesure we play as equally as good footy in the second half of the year."

He also said his role of managing theplayers doesn't change at this stage of the season.

"We're very mindful of the fact thatby the midway point of the year, there's a greater potential when they run out,they might have a few more niggles," he said.

"Therefore, during the week and therole I play with the development academy in terms of teaching new skills, orthe rectification of issues with certain skills, I've just got to be a bit moremindful of loading.

"Our attitude is we always want tomake them better players, and not just stop because it's halfway through theyear. That was part of setting up the academy; we felt that most footy clubs dodevelopment from a skills perspective pretty well, but then when the seasonstarts, you can understand clubs start to focus on winning games.

"We want to make sure we have playersdeveloping all the way through."