The bump has been a hot topic all pre-season, and very contentious among the AFL fraternity.

This season the AFL said it would come down hard on any player who made contact with a player's head -- which is great for the game, as the head should be sacrosanct.

We certainly don't want players with their head over the ball getting smashed and we don't want any serious injuries occurring due to head-high contact. It's a great initiative from the AFL to clamp down hard in this area.

But it's also positive to see that the AFL match review panel didn't take Matthew Whelan's bump on St Kilda co-captain Luke Ball from last Friday night's match any further. We still want to see the type of bump that Matty executed remain in the game, and we still want a tough contest.

The match review's assessment was that Whelan turned his body to shepherd his teammate, resulting in contact between his back and Ball's chest. The momentum of the contact resulted in accidental head clash. Under the tribunal guidelines it was an "accidental head clash".

A bump such as the one Matty gave can certainly lift the team, although unfortunately it didn't work for us on the night. But it's great to see Matty's bump stay in our game, as it was a hard hit and hard contest.

On the Round 1 loss, it was certainly a disappointing way to start the season.

I thought we started well in the first term, but we dropped away in our second and third quarters. We lacked direction, intensity in the contest and overused the ball. It is something we have addressed and will rectify this Monday. We certainly want to get back to using quick feet and hands, and we only want to use our hands if it is necessary.

This ring-a-ring-a-rosy rugby-style didn't work against St Kilda. The Saints put us under great pressure and we've got to get back to using our feet effectively, while getting the ball down to our forwards as much as possible.

We've worked hard this week on our style, and it's worked out well that there is a 10-day gap between our next match because we've had time to assess areas of our game and work on our style to beat the Hawks.

Personally, it's my 150th AFL match on Monday and it's an achievement I'll look back on at the end of my career rather than right now. Hopefully I'll play many more games, but at this stage I'm simply after a win.

It has come around quickly. I still feel young. I've just turned 26 and I've got to thank “Danners” (Neale Daniher) for giving me the opportunity to play 150 AFL matches. Since my first year in 2000, I've played 20 or more matches each season.

I've had some ups and downs. I've gone from a deep forward, to half-forward and in more recent times in the midfield, so I've progressed further up the field. And in my first few years, I was playing off the bench for much of the time.

Mum and Dad and my aunty and uncle are coming over from Tassie for the Easter break and they're coming to the game. It's always nice to have family and friends come to the game. Mum and Dad probably come over and watch about seven or eight games a year, which is great.

It's a great honour playing 150 matches, but the main priority is to get our first win of the season.