Following our week off and taking it easy and getting away from football, we had 5 days off and came back on Saturday night for training on Sunday where it didn't take long for us to switch on the football brain and start thinking about the black and white of Collingwood, who have beaten us the last three times we played, all of which was last year and none more convincing than in the Elimination Final last year.

While the break was fantastic for everyone and for me personally, I love being able to switch off mentally from football and to not have to talk, think or have anything to do with football for a few days it really was very refreshing mentally and as for the body its great to give it a bit of time to recover and rest. Port Douglas was fantastic there is so much to do up there and you know what I didn't do much of it only sat by the pool read my book, relaxed and got to know and become friendly with a few cocktails.

As I said the break was great and once I arrived back in Sydney I could sense in myself that it was time to knuckle down and get ready for the Magpies. We trained well on Sunday had an easy day Monday and trained well again on Tuesday evening. There has being a lot of meetings this week mainly so we come tuned in and ready to play. In the past following our weekend off we haven't played very well, so this year we tried a few different things like the fivr days off and more intense training but we wont know till Saturday night weather it has worked or not.

This is a huge game for both clubs its the only game of AFL that is on in the country so there will be a huge TV audience and there will be a massive crowd of around 60-70,000 at it. As a player and a team, these are the games you really want to play well in. Like I said we have lost the last few against Collingwood and as a team you don't like losing twice to a team in the season never mind three times like we did. Having looked at our last few encounters our pressure and tackling are key areas that let us down and these are key areas where we have to switch onto and get right if we are to get a result on Saturday night. Personally I'm biting at the bone to get out there and play and have a crack, the body feels great and mentally ready for the back end of the season and the Magpies on Saturday night in what should be a cracking encounter.