After a tough 2011, the boys really primed themselves to start the season off well - and fortunately we were able to do that with a good win on the road against the Demons.
But just five days later we were handed a pretty severe reality check by Carlton at the Gabba, which took a bit of wind out of our sails.
As you could probably expect, there weren’t too many positives to be taken out of our post-match review meeting.
All credit to Carlton, they are a fantastic team, but we were obviously disappointed with our lack of competiveness in the second half.
To make matters worse, we found out the morning after the Blues game that Simon Black had broken his hand and would be missing about a month of footy. He’s probably started the 2012 season as well as any of his other 14, and will be tough to replace over that time.
Having suffered a similar injury towards the end of last year, I at least know that it won’t affect his aerobic capacity because he’ll still be able to do all the running and fitness drills.
The only thing he’ll miss at training is the ball-work. And let’s face it, Blacky has dished out that many handballs throughout his career that it’s not the sort of skill that’s going to become a bit rusty in a few weeks.
At least we get to substitute one champion for another with Jonathan Brown ready to play this Saturday against Fremantle.
The big fella has been champing at the bit over the last few weeks to get back out onto the field with his team-mates, and will no doubt be hoping to put the past 12 months of frustration behind him.
His inclusion should also help me and my fellow defenders out, because it means that Daniel Merrett is probably likely to resume his regular role down at full-back.
Big ‘Rog’ has been really important for us as a forward target in Browny’s absence, and currently leads the Club’s goal-kicking with four from the first two matches. Considering he had only kicked a total of four goals from his past six seasons - it’s not a bad return.
Meanwhile, ‘Goose’ Maguire has held the backline together really well in the opening couple of weeks, but will probably need a bit more help this week given Fremantle have a couple of tall targets up forward.
The Dockers generally rotate one of their ruckmen forward, which means we can probably expect Aaron Sandilands (211cm) or Zac Clarke (203cm) down there at different times - not to mention regular full-forward Kepler Bradley (199cm).
Then you throw in Fremantle Captain Matthew Pavlich who is their all-time leading goal-kicker, and you have yourself a pretty tall order.
Our work will certainly be cut out for us.
