In this week's edition of Dimma's Diary, Draftee Blake Hardwick talks about his first game in brown and gold.
I found out about half way through the week that I was playing, and it was a pretty normal couple of days in the lead up.
I’ve always slept well the night before a game - I always get a bit nervous, but not too much – it wasn’t really any different to normal.
When you wake up on the Saturday morning that’s when the nerves kick in, but once I get out there it’s fine.
Usually my routine is I wake up, have some breakfast and take the dog for a walk.
Playing at 4.40pm was an unusual time for me, so I just sort of relaxed and chilled with some mates after that until it was time to go.
I got to Beaconsfield pretty early, and the first impression walking into the rooms was that it was a bit different.
There’s a lot more preparation involved, the massage, physios… even the warm-ups start earlier.
I’m generally pretty relaxed before games, I like to have a joke around and go with the flow – I’m not really someone who gets pumped up by having music in my ears or anything like that.
There was plenty of good advice. A lot of players got around me and just said to take it as any other game.
The main bit of advice I got was that when you have the ball, you always have a bit longer than you think, and just always settle and take that extra second.
At the start it was a bit daunting, seeing all the fans there.
But then once the game started it was just like normal. You don’t really realise the crowd or anything when the game starts, it’s all about the footy.
The coaches said I’d probably play about half the game, so I didn’t know when I was coming on. The first quarter went for so long just watching and waiting, and I was pretty eager to get out there.
About 10 minutes into the second quarter they said I was going on, so I started to warm up and just got out there.
Everyone gave me a similar message – just get out there and play how you play, don’t get too stressed out about it and treat it like any other game.
I was expecting it to be pretty physical and fast, and that’s what it was. It was definitely a big step up.
At one stage I got caught in a bit of push and shove with Trent Cotchin… but it was just a bit of push and shove.
I had the ball, he tried to tackle me and I gave him a bit of a fend off - I don’t think he was too happy about it.
Looking back at the game now, it was a great experience – I thought I did some things really well but there’s still plenty of room to improve.
I thought I matched the physicality well and adapted well to that, but I think adapting to the pace of the game was something I can improve on.
Now the challenge is just to keep improving.
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