It would have been nice to have served my time through last weekend's AFL round, but unfortunately even with the club's plea for special dispensation, our attempts were rejected.
But that's the way it goes, you wear it, and as far as the tribunal case itself goes, there’s not a whole lot of freedom of speech to talk about that these days.
Unfortunately I have been on the receiving end of the fact that the AFL and VFL fixtures don't align, and as a result they haven't been helpful to myself, or other players around the league.
Having dealt with the injury-interrupted start of the 2012 season, my delayed comeback match took place at Visy Park, when a bye round at VFL level forced the club to stage a Thursday night intra-club for the Northern Blues. It was at the time when players like 'Jamo' (Michael Jamison) and 'Duigs' (Nick Duigan) were also returning after injury layoffs so it was a good introduction for me to start to find my feet in a game with reduced intensity and duration.
I also suffered a two-week setback after suffering a hamstring injury at training, then returned to the AFL for a few games, only to have the consistency interrupted again and have an AFL bye. This bye can be a good thing, and I know some of the older guys really appreciated a week off, as it gives them a chance of either freshening up, getting some more physical conditioning work in or even a chance to get over a few niggles that develop over the course of the year.
I then returned in round 14 for our clash against Hawthorn, then played the following week in the VFL where I was suspended and am again on the receiving end of the bye round.
In an ideal world we’d probably play in a competition where the fixtures are the same at senior and reserve grade level. This would make things easy from a program perspective and also would give every player on the list equal chance to prepare and play and put their best foot forward. Teams meet each other once, because when you take pre-season into account it's a long year. How this would happen would be another matter.
I can remember quite recently a few teammates had to front up for a Friday AFL game after playing in a Sunday VFL game, and it would be tough having to deal with a five-day turnaround.??
At the end of the day, continuity and consistency is the thing you want - consistency with training, from weights to skills, running and games, as the more sessions and games you get in uninterrupted, with the right environment around you, the more likely you are to improve as a player.
Unfortunately, you can't get that consistency if you're not playing and unfortunately for us, we were in a position a couple of weeks ago where three ruckmen were all up and about, now we're down to one . . . but I guess that's footy to a degree.
This week I'll train with the main group, but complete my extras after training and get some extra weights in, which is a good thing for me as I struggle to keep my weight.
On a final note, it's reassuring to know that the new contract's been put to bed during the week after the Hawthorn game. Negotiations weren't protracted but I'm glad they're done. I'm happy to be here because it's a great place and a great club with great history and great people. Admittedly we've been hit hard with injuries (which impacts on continuity as I mentioned earlier) but we're young and we're going places. ??
I'll be there at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, hopefully watching the boys get up for a win.
