Daniel Bradshaw tells sydneyswans.com.au about his return from injury against the Bulldogs, his hopes for the pre-season and which team-mates impressed him most...

You’d have to say this year has been a pretty mixed bag for you…
Yeah, I was pretty excited the first half of the year. I played eight out of nine games, but most of the year it has obviously been a frustrating year for me.

It was good to finally get back and play a game against the Bulldogs in the semi-final and the knee was feeling good so that’s positive for next year.

The first half of that final I felt really good, my body and my fitness were alright but after half-time I could feel my knee a bit and I felt like I was favouring it. But I still took a lot of confidence out of the game because I thought I moved well and my hands were pretty good.

Obviously my kicking wasn’t much chop though. I hadn’t done much kicking. I tried not to kick on that leg much at training because I didn’t want to stir it up. And I hadn’t done a goal-kicking session with Johnny (Blakey) on a Tuesday since pre-season. It was always in the back of my mind, the snapping action, when I was getting the pain. So probably sub-consciously I was holding back a bit and not kicking through it where I should have been.

But hopefully now I have a bit of time off I can just rest it, and the doc and the physio seem to think I won’t need an operation on it, so that is good.

In terms of the team, you had to watch on a lot, but what were the things that most impressed you about the team’s performance this year?
Probably the turning point was the Melbourne game where they got flogged. They had been playing alright but we went into that game thinking we’d win it. Ever since then we turned the season around and leading into the end of the year we won six of seven games so that will be good leading into next year.

There were some good signs, all the young players coming through really stepped up.

Which of your team-mates stood out to you?
A few of the boys who came from other clubs, like Shane Mumford, and seeing Benny McGlynn and Josh Kennedy close up. I hadn’t seen Josh play that much when he was at Hawthorn but I’ve been pretty impressed with the way he goes about it. He’s got a bit of confidence and it goes a long way when someone shows faith in you and gives you a chance.

You have two more years on your contract. Are you looking forward to next year and beyond and do you feel you can get your body in the right state?
I hope so. The knee obviously took a lot longer than I thought it would after that operation mid-season. But now with the time off and not needing another operation, I won’t be in rehab. I can keep going and build on it from here, and go into pre-season to get it right for next year.

So overall has it been a tough year?
It has been because a lot of the time I didn’t know if I was going to get back. It was unknown, whereas with a lot of other injuries you have a time frame on it. This just kept getting pushed back and back. So it was the most frustrating thing. You don’t feel part of it, you are just in rehab, in the dungeon, training at different times to the other boys. You want to be out there trying to help the team out. It was frustrating but out of my control so you’ve just got to try and stay positive. It was hard at times.

I played a couple of games in the Reserves and struggled a bit, one was in terrible wet conditions. So to come back in a final and move like I did, that gives me a bit of confidence going into next year.

What are you doing in the break?
Ange (my wife) and I are thinking about going away for a few days and hopefully we can palm the kids off to her mum and dad. Go somewhere in the sun, to Port Douglas or somewhere and get some sun and do nothing for a few days.

Daniel Bradshaw in action during season 2010: