I'VE been on a mid-semester break from my university course, so I had a bit more time on my hands than usual this week.

You don’t want to spend all week thinking about the game you’re going to play on the weekend so it’s good to keep pretty busy.

Of course there’s training but away from the Club I’ve been trying to go to see a few movies and spending a fair bit of time beating Kieren Jack at FIFA on the PlayStation.

Gary Rohan and I have got the upper hand on him in the last three or four games, so Kizza quite often storms out of our house in frustration at another loss.

Though the weird thing is that when we go and play at his house, it’s a different story. It must be something about the home ground advantage.

We also like to play cards. We get into a few games when we’re at the club, waiting to get ready for training.

But most of all I’ve just been trying to relax and enjoy the week, and not think too much about things until after our main session, which was last night.

It was fantastic to have the experience of playing my first final last weekend. It was a lot different to a normal game, in terms of the intensity and the pressure.

People told me it would be different, but it was more than I’d imagined. The pressure increased 10-fold, and you really didn’t have as much time to make a decision.

But we needed that experience and I hope it will hold us in good stead when we play the Dogs tomorrow night at the MCG