I'VE BEEN really looking forward to being a part of the International Rules Series ever since I was named in the Australian squad and so far it's been everything I hoped it would be.

We had a practice game against a Western Australian team the other night and it was a lot of fun. It's a very different game to AFL, but it's very quick and it was good to get out there with some of the guys I've played against in the past.

We've been together as a group for a few days now and it's been great from a social point of view. 

There are a stack of really great players in the side and it's been a good opportunity for me to get to meet some new people and get a feel for how they prepare for a game. I'm playing with guys like Brent Harvey, who I looked up to when I was playing junior footy, so it's been a great experience for me.

I've also found you can form opinions of people by how they are on the field that turn out to be right off the mark. Some of the guys who I've played against in the past you don't really know what they're like off the field, but on the field they can be a bit annoying. This has been a good chance to see that other side to them.

Ryan Crowley hasn't really played on me before, but he's got that reputation of being an annoying tagger; I've gotten to know him a bit over here and he's actually a great fella!

Mick Malthouse is also one that comes to mind, but he's been really good and nothing like how he comes across in the media sometimes. He's been a great coach over a lot of years and I'll be doing my best to try and pick up a few things from him.

As for actually playing the game, it's not easy, but I'm slowly getting used to it. I've been kicking around corners a lot with the round ball because you've got to try and kick it off your instep.

It slides off the boot really easily, so we're just trying to limit the kicks to 20 or 30m.

A few of the boys have pulled up a bit sore, but that's just because none of us have played a game for a month or so. It takes a little bit to get back into the agility side of it, but we're getting managed really well and couldn't be in better hands from a fitness point of view.

The added bonus of all this is that I'm pretty confident I won't get a whack from Ratts for coming back for pre-season training out of shape. I've been running over the break with an eye on playing in this series, so the pre-season work won't come as too much of a shock to the system.

I'm confident everyone will come back refreshed after having a good break. I went on a couple of trips – one to Macau and one to the Gold Coast – and it was nice to get away.

I spent four nights in Macau with a bunch of teammates including Fev, Griggy, Gibbsy, Brad Fisher and Kade Simpson. It's like an Asian Las Vegas so we went out for a bite to eat every night and then hit the tables for a few hours – nothing too serious – but it was good fun.

The Gold Coast was great too. I organised to get some tickets through Hyundai for the Australia-Qatar soccer match in Brisbane and we had a really good night watching the Socceroos win up there. But anyone who watched the match would have seen how wet it was and I ended up buying an Aussie jersey to try and stay warm because I got absolutely drenched.  

The boys with one to three years experience are back on the track on Monday (October 27) and it's amazing how quickly it comes around after the end on the season.

You've got to approach every year as an opportunity to play finals and if we don't make it next year it will definitely be a disappointment. All the blokes are really keen to get into pre-season so we can set ourselves up to play some finals footy.

I'll miss the first couple of weeks because I get some extra time off for participating in the International Rules Series, but I'm sure the fellas will be able to do the hard yards without me for a while.