Swans midfielder Kieren Jack experienced a frustrating 2011 season after an ankle injury in round 6 hampered the middle part of his season.

The 2010 Bob Skilton medallist missed six out of nine games from round 7 to 16, and had to be substituted out of one other following a reoccurence of the injury.

Kieren played his best football towards the end of the year, and had a season-high 34 disposals against the Western Bulldogs in round 18.

Kizza spoke to sydneyswans.com.au about the frustrations of his injury lay-off and his excitement for the years ahead.   

Your year was disrupted by injury. How did you deal with that?

It was very frustrating.  I’ve never been injured before. I’ve always been able to do every training session and play every game and this year was quite the opposite. The injury that I had set me back a long way. I came back pretty quickly, because it was quite a bad injury that I got. I was probably a little bit underdone but I still felt confident in the ankle, but I redid it again.

I had a shocking couple of weeks. In that Collingwood game I got knocked about in a clash at the first bounce and then re-did the ankle and missed another week. Once I got back after that I still felt a bit underdone. I felt I could contribute but I didn’t have the impact on games that I wanted to have.

It was just match fitness, I struggled a bit with that.

Is there something you can learn from it to take into next year?

The injury was bad luck but you gather a real appreciation for being fit and healthy and playing games week in and week out and being on the field when you don’t have a niggle and can be 100 per cent. That was something I missed for most of this year. I didn’t feel like I was a waste of space out there but it wasn’t the impact I wanted to have. It was disappointing but it drives me for next pre-season. I will have a couple of weeks off and then get straight back into running again and try to get back into peak fitness pretty quickly.

Last year I had an interrupted pre-season because I went to Ireland and then came back late to pre-season training and was behind the main group for a few weeks. I didn’t really get back into it until early December but this year I will be starting back in mid-November or even a bit earlier. I’ll have a decent break and then a decent off season and that’s what I’m looking forward to.

Overall, what did you like about the team’s performance in 2011?

With John coming in as a new coach, there were certainly some tweaks to the game plan and structures and that took some training and time getting used to it. We showed ourselves that it all works, that what John thinks is best for the team, is good for this group. We proved that against Geelong and against St Kilda, top four teams and we had struggled against top four teams in previous years.

We unearthed some handy players too. A season under Sam Reid’s belt is going to be so good for him next year and Alex Johnson as well, and Luke Parker. They’ll be that much better for it next year, they’ll have that much more confidence playing next year. Another pre-season for them, and it makes me excited for the future.