But due to circumstances, we had lived separate lives for the better part of two years in Melbourne.

 

When a close friend of mine, who was living with me from day one, moved back to Perth - the door opened for someone to move in. And, after interviewing a vast array of people, I narrowed it down to the middle brother Jarryd.

 

Just to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake, I ran it by the parents, who had gone on record saying: ‘we could never live together again’. This was after many episodes of sibling rivalry as kids.

 

I was determined to prove the olds wrong and show that we had “matured” since then.

 

Jarryd, who has been known to holiday in Thailand with nothing more than a bum-bag, moved his humble belongings in. And to this day, he remains my number one tenant.

 

For a while, my little three bedrooms and two bathrooms home operated with a spare bedroom. I had the grand idea that it would be used by my many friends visiting from Perth.

 

Well let me tell you, they soon forget about you when you’re not getting a kick! And the room was relatively unused. (I’m just kidding about the Perth friends, I still love them).

 

One day, perhaps in between Jarryd’s sleepwalking antics (which is another story in itself) one of us floated the idea of older brother Mitch moving in.

 

This was a good idea, as it was in many ways a reunion of our childhood and a test to see how far we’d come.

At this point, Mum and Dad thought we had no chance of functioning as a civilised household.

 

Mitch proceeded to take over the spare room, much to the concern of my visiting friends (which was no one), and while he was at it, he took over half the garage, half the lounge room and half the kitchen with many of his useless household items.

 

For example, he had an ice-cream making machine, which he insisted we keep. The ice-cream maker has never EVER been used for those wondering. So don’t go out and buy one, just ask me and I will gladly donate it to you if I can steal it from under Mitch’s watchful guard.

 

For what it’s worth the house is functioning quite well.

 

The interesting thing is that we are all at different clubs.

 

It does get a bit weird at times, especially when we are playing against each other.

 

Despite being family, what is said at the club stays at the club - even though sometimes I really want to know how Dustin Martin trains or how Cameron Bruce covers up his bald patch! But we make sure we don’t bring our work home.

 

The most interesting time of the week is definitely the weekend.

 

We can each have a game on a different day, whether it’s Friday, Saturday or Sunday - so pre-game routines and superstitions can be affected by others, which leads to outbursts of anger.

 

We all know it leads to arguments, and if you know any of us well - arguments don’t tend to end for several minutes. Often hours!

 

Jarryd likes to be in bed early and hates watching any football.

 

Mitch likes to watch TV pretty late and loves a nap in the afternoon.

 

I love watching footy and most sports. This combines for many lightning dashes to the couch and even some tactical placements of the remote, so only you know where it’s hidden, when others think it’s lost!

 

Recently Mitch and Jarryd have got themselves into a relationship.

 

This means that along with my girlfriend, who also lives with us, the house can get pretty full at times.

 

This doesn’t really bother us though, as we went to boarding school and are used to living under a roof with several people from all walks of life. And yes I do consider Jarryd coming from another walk of life: he’s a sleepwalker!

 

The house is a lot of fun and more than anything, it allows us to let our hair down and relax among family in our downtime.

 

As football can be a pretty stressful environment at times, this is pretty important to us and can be invaluable at times. 

 

The fact we can relate to each other helps as well, although no one can relate to Mitch’s ice-cream maker or his popcorn machine - next he’ll be baking his own bread!

 

Anyway, I hope I’ve kept you entertained for a few minutes and you’ve got a bit of an insight into my life at home with my two brothers.