You get a lot of advice as you’re on the road to becoming a football player. It generally changes as you grow up - you start off your career with six or seven years playing juniors and then you go into rep footy, and then reserves and then hopefully senior footy - and you get told so many different things as you go along. The one thing that stays with me is about the attack on the footy, being really hungry to compete and get the best out of yourself. Don’t cheat yourself, make sure you always want to win the footy, do the right thing by your team and make sure you’re working really hard. I try to take those things out on the field with me.
I get excited going to play in Melbourne. There’s going to be a fair few of my family there today. Obviously Mum and Dad, my sisters, my grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins… I have a lot of cousins, with my Mum being one of 12 and my Dad one of four, there’s probably going to be 40 or 50 cousins there, plus all their friends, and my mates too. All up, it’s about 100-200 people, no joke. There’s pretty much a whole bay of people I’m related to at Melbourne games. They all love it, and everyone gets a buzz out of it.
I don’t get nervous knowing that they’re all there to see me, but a lot of blokes do get nervous before a game, and everyone deals with it differently. Rhyce Shaw actually got asked this question during a live chat on our website this week, and I think he said he takes a nap in the corner with Jets (Lewis Jetta), and mentioned a few boys who actually vomit before a game. I’m kind of the opposite to Shawry. I generally like to listen to a bit of music and relax myself for a little bit, but then I try to really pump myself up before the first warm-up. A lot of the guys get stuck into me for being too excited - I get really pumped and clap my hands, start shouting stuff and kick the footy really hard to the other blokes, I probably need to make sure over the next few weeks or months or years, that I wind that down a bit and save up a bit of energy before I go on the field, but at the moment it really helps.
This weekend, I need to focus on backing my instincts, really backing myself. When I get the footy, I need to make sure I take my space, kick really well and do all the right things by the game plan and the coaches. When the ball’s there to be taken, or when I’m in contest, I'm trying to make sure I’m really physical, and when I’m put in a role, or when Roosy tells me to do something, making sure I put my head down and really do it. Basically I just want to come off the ground 100% spent, knowing that I’ve done everything I can.
