ANGUS Brayshaw says that he did not expect to play 21 games in his debut season at Melbourne.

Brayshaw played every AFL game in 2015 except for round 22’s away clash against Fremantle in Perth.

Speaking to Dee TV, Brayshaw said he had a less than ideal start to the season after missing the entire NAB Challenge.

“Upon reflection, I didn’t have the best pre-season [as] I was a bit sick and [I was] adjusting to the whole training loads; I wasn’t training as well as I would have liked during the pre-season,” he said.

“I got a bit of a head-knock in a practice game at Casey so they said they weren’t going to play me in the NAB Challenge and I played at Casey for three weeks and built my form.

“I think I timed it perfectly [though] and didn’t miss a beat once I got into the senior team.”

Physically, Brayshaw said the second half of the year was more demanding on his body, which culminated in a rest in round 22.
 
“I think for the whole season, your aim is just to back-up and keep going. After the bye round, I came back and every week was getting a little bit harder to back up,” he said.

“I was not performing the role; I’d sort of try to tackle and run fast and chase and I probably wasn’t as sharp as what I was in the earlier rounds so it was just time for a rest.

“I think for next year, one of the things I’ll be trying to do is run through the finish line instead of just limping and really just finish the season strong.”

Brayshaw said that while it was not unexpected, his first year of AFL had been a steep learning curve.

“The two things that really caught me by surprise are how full-time the whole job is; it’s day-in, day-out,” he said.

“You’ve always got to be thinking about what decisions you’re making that will be beneficial for your footy so you’ve got to be [a] full-time professional.

“[The second thing that surprised me was] how big everyone is and how quick everyone is and it translates into the game as well: how big all of the bodies are that you’re playing against and how quickly you need to make decisions and how quick the game is and how the ball moves.”

Capping off his impressive year with fifth place in the NAB AFL Rising Star, Brayshaw said that it was nice to be recognised alongside his peers.

“To see the other guys who made the top five and the blokes who didn’t finish in the top five who I think probably should have made it higher than me, it’s certainly a great honour,” he said.

“The panel who vote [for the award] are superstars of our game so for them to put me in that top five is awesome. It’s quite humbling but a good honour.”