It might only be mid-January, with the AFL premiership season still two months away, but this is the time of the year when the competitive instincts really start to kick in.

Training before Christmas can get a bit repetitive, but once we get back from our short break, the games seem to be just around the corner.

I have a massive two months up to Christmas with my pre-season training and the body felt really good over the break.

I took the chance to duck over to Hawaii for a week, which was excellent.

We surfed at Waikiki quite a few times and I even got to sample the famous north shore Pipeline. Fortunately, the day we went the waves were only about three foot tall – if it had been pumping like it can, I would have been watching from the shore.

We were straight back ‘into it’ at training when we returned in the first week of January, although I’ve backed off a bit this week due to a bit of tightness in the legs.

It’s nothing to worry about and is only precautionary as I’ve still done most of the skills work.

I’m itching to start playing again for lots of reasons. With such a big pre-season of running, you look forward to the competitive stuff.

I’m also really excited about going into the season because I took a bit of belief about the way I finished last year. Not just a belief in my own ability, but in the team as well.

I know we just missed the finals, but our second half of the year had a lot of good in it, and I believe we can go bigger and better this year.

Getting Braddy back from his knee injury will be a big plus, and Travis Johnstone has been a fantastic pick-up.

While we wait for the action to kick off in the NAB Cup next month, there’s plenty of other sport happening around us to keep us amused.

After spending time in Europe with ‘Hads’ 18 months ago, I came back with a new appreciation of soccer. On the beach, in the papers – it is in your face everywhere over there.

I follow the English Premier League and I’ve become a huge Liverpool after my favourite player Fernando Torres moved there.

The Italian League is a bit defensive and the Spanish league is okay, but the EPL is exciting – some of their games are end-to-end all day like a game of AFL.

A few of the boys at the club including ‘Moods’, Scotty Clouston and Paddy Garner are in a Fantasy League competition, and I think I’ve got my nose in front there at the moment.

I’m a big NFL fan as well, and I’m pretty happy that at the moment I should be able to see the start of the Super Bowl on Monday wee as training finishes just before it.

The Green Bay Packers are my team, but they got knocked out last weekend in their Conference final by the Giants.

Despite that, I’ll still be going for the Giants against New England in the Super Bowl. I love an underdog, and the Giants are certainly that, having just scraped into the playoffs while the Patriots are unbeaten.

Watching some of the games played in a blanket of snow, or in minus 15 degrees celcius like the final in Green Bay last week makes me glad we don’t have to play footy in it.

If we did, we’d still be okay because we are on the move all the time, but I don’t know how those American guys fare coming on and off the bench all the time.