TODAY was a good day. We had our first intra-club hit-out of the year and I’m really happy with the way it went.

I felt really good today, I went out there pretty excited this morning – I think all the boys did – and it was good to finally get out there and play against someone.

You couldn’t complain about the weather, the surface or the attitude of the boys and to come out relatively unscathed as a group is great.

I pulled up really well. I’ve got a few little sore spots but that’s to be expected and is nothing to worry about.

I played deep back for most of the game against the resting ruckman - Simon Taylor and Robbie Campbell mostly - and it was really good to test myself against those bigger-bodied blokes. I thought I did pretty well and only had one goal kicked on me all day from a free kick. I didn’t lose too many contests which was good and is something I’ve been working on.

They threw me into the ruck for a quarter which was good. I was a ruckman when I was first drafted to the club and I enjoyed having a run on the ball again. I think Clarko wanted to throw me in there to get a bit of a feel for it just in case I’m ever needed to do a bit of pinch-hitting throughout the season.

It was good to have the freedom to roam around and get a few kicks and the boys seemed pretty pleased with how I went in there, so it was good.

We’ve got Sydney next weekend and Clarko has already told me, pretty much, that I’ll be playing, so I’ve got to start preparing right away just about. I’ll look at a few videos of who I’ll be playing on and hopefully continue to improve next week.

That’s pretty much it for our Tasmanian road trip. We’ll have a bit of lunch and then it’s straight on the bus out to the airport and onto the plane back to Melbourne.

I must say it’s been an enjoyable experience overall. I’d never been to Queenstown before and I experienced a few things, like jet boating and touring through a working mine, that I never had before and I got to see a beautiful part of the world.

It’s good to get down here and promote the club because they all seem to love it. It’s good to see a smile on everyone’s face once we get down here which always makes it worthwhile and makes me feel like we’re having a bit of a positive impact down here.