I always had a lot of injuries when I was in the AFL so the attention to my body was always paramount for me to get through a season. I would have averaged three or four physio sessions a week for my whole 10 years and I always had a few problems with my groins so you throw in pilates once a week, your additional stretching classes and a bit of acupuncture. There's a lot of attention detail to your body in the AFL and I pretty much had to do all of that from day dot because my body kept letting me down.

It's limited what I can do now in terms of all that stuff for my body. My schedule sees me get into work at 7.30 or 8am, rush to training to get there by 5pm and I still like to strap my ankles and a few things like that so that takes 10 or 15 minutes. Then you are out on the track by 20 past five and you try to fit in five or 10 minutes of helping out other blokes with some things or sharpening yourself up. It's a rush of going from one thing to the next but when it's your full-time job you do a session and then recover with food and rest, then you go again and recover and then go again.

I think coming back to the WAFL and doing less has ended up helping my body a little bit. I don’t think my body ever responded to the demands of AFL and how constantly you are on your feet, and the demands and intensity of the game and trainings during the week. I always broke down because of that, but my body is responding well to the work and WAFL lifestyle.

I reckon it took me a good year to adjust when I came back from Carlton. It takes a while just to get used to not having any time to yourself. When football is your full-time job you get time to yourself, but now going into a full-time job and still trying to meet the demands to play WAFL football means most days you leave home at 7.30 in the morning and get home at 7.30 at night. On the Tuesday and Thursday nights when you don't have training you either go to the club and do the extra weights sessions or catch up with friends, that's basically the cycle.

But in my case having a family now and a little son it makes it even harder to juggle the work and football commitments, and feeling like you are home enough. On the nights you have training you aren’t really helping out much so on Tuesday and Thursday I try to get home as quick as I can to help out to spend a couple of hours with him before he goes to bed.

My first two years back at East Fremantle in 2011 and 2012 I was going to the club on a Tuesday night and just doing a little bit of weights and little bit of rehab running just because I had a little bit of time on my way home, but I don’t do that now because I have other priorities in life.

In terms of my job, I am working at a logistics company FM Global Logistics; we are basically freight brokers for Importers and exporters. The job came about through the East Fremantle Football Club and Mike Fairnie who is the business development manager at FM Global and is one of the colts coaches down at the club. When I first came back to Perth I initially was interested in getting involved in the finance industry, as my ongoing studies where in this field.? But I had an interview with FM Global and felt like it was a good opportunity. It was local here in Fremantle and the boss Brad O’Donnell was happy to allow me to leave work little earlier on training days, and sacrifice work on occasions for club commitments. Without a doubt it has been a huge help working in Fremantle, playing at East Fremantle and living in Bicton, all within a three kilometre radius. I got back from Melbourne in October 2010 and started working there January 2011, and have been there since.

I'm enjoying the industry I'm working in and it's definitely different working a traditional 8-5 job after being in the AFL for 10 years. It does take a while to get used to and the demands are different. In the AFL you exert a lot of energy for a small amount of time, but with work it's constant all day, every day. I have enjoyed the transition even though it took me a good year to get used to the demands of work, playing State level football and starting a family.

Definitely when you go home to the family you try to switch off from work and footy, but work and footy do mix at different times during the day. Being part of the leadership group at East Fremantle we correspond during the day through emails so we discuss things that we are doing and what direction we head for that weekend, but apart from that you do try to focus on work when you are there, and then on footy when you are at the club. That's really your exercise and anyone else who works still wants to exercise so that's how I treat going to training.

I also have a great wife who cooks for me at home. If I had to add in cooking for myself and making sure I ate healthy I think it would be just another thing to do that would be tough. She helps me out and cooks good meals which I'm very thankful for.

I would like to say I could keep going beyond this year with juggling the work, football and family but realistically it's going to be tough. I've had 13 operations in 13 years as well so I have to think of my body post football, as well as my family. ? I'm not getting any faster so I have to think about what I can keep contributing on the field.

It becomes a little bit much for my family to put up with me training three nights a week 10 months a year and then not being there on all day Saturday during the season, but I will never say never and I still love playing at East Fremantle so I will decide at the end of the year.