This is not how I imagined spending the opening round of the 2010 AFL season.

However, what seemed to be an innocuous tumble in a

practice match against North Melbourne in Ballarat — of all places — three weeks ago changed my plans drastically.

A broken right collarbone saw to that. So my contribution in round one will be cheering on the boys against Melbourne.

I am hoping to return in round four or five.

If there could be a positive out of the whole episode, it was that the break was clean and did not require surgery.

My recovery is going well.

I am back running and by the end of next week will be full-on with skills training.

Getting an injury so close to the start of the season was

extremely disappointing, especially given that I had had

one of my best pre-seasons and was physically in great

condition. Although my match fitness has suffered, my general fitness is not too bad and will not take long to get back to where it needs to be.

Injuries have not been kind to us, with ruckman Simon Taylor breaking his leg on the same day in Ballarat.

And then Shaun Burgoyne (hamstring), Cyril Rioli (groin),

Max Bailey (knee) and Wayde Skipper (hamstring) have all had interrupted pre-seasons and remain sidelined for today’s clash with Melbourne.

It is not an ideal start, but having said this, what injuries

such as these and being without the suspended Buddy Franklin and Chance Bateman does is open up opportunities for youngsters.

We face a tough opening month, meeting three leading

candidates for the top four — Geelong, Western Bulldogs and Collingwood.

We are going into the new season determined to make

amends for last year’s disappointing premiership defence.

It was a massive let-down.

I am still at a loss to explain exactly what happened.

However, there is nothing to suggest the outcome this season will be anything like that.

The application and attitude of everyone has been nothing short of exemplary. We will offer much more than last season.

You can count on that.