DEFENDER Troy Davis speaks to melbournefc.com.au’s Matt Burgan about playing his first official match for Melbourne last weekend, the condition he suffered in his first season and his goals for 2012

Well done on playing your first official match for Melbourne last Saturday against Collingwood. How did you find it?
TD: I was rapt. It was the first time I’ve been out on Etihad [Stadium surface], so it was great to just walk out there. I didn’t know until the Wednesday night that I’d be playing. It was a bit surreal at first. It took a while to sink in, and then I got plenty of calls from family and friends on Thursday. That was when it really hit me.

How did you rate your game?
TD: There are definitely areas I need to improve on, but I thought I did pretty good one-on-one. A couple of times, I got caught out of position, which just shows the intensity of AFL compared to VFL. You switch off for a half a second and it’s too late. That was probably the main thing I noticed. Overall, I was pretty happy.

Did you feel like you belonged?
TD: Getting a whole pre-season under my belt helped and gave me a fair bit of confidence. Having the boys around me, like Chip (James Frawley), Riv (Jared Rivers), Garlo (Colin Garland), Sellsy (James Sellar) and JB (Jamie Bennell) - they’ve all helped me. If I was out of position, they’d straight away tell me and they were always giving me advice. I had full trust in them to know what to do.

How has your pre-season been?
TD: Misso (Dave Misson) gave us numbers we had to reach for the three-km time trial. I had to get under 10:45, and they wanted my goal weight to be 96 kg or below. They also wanted my skinfolds to be 50 or below. So, these were my main goals to reach. As a backman, I have to play 97 plus minutes game time, so I have to be able to run out a game.

Last year was your first season at Melbourne. Late in the pre-season, you suffered a thyroid disorder. How did you cope with that? 
TD: At the start, it was a pain, because I’d got through pre-season until the last two weeks. Then that came up and kicked me in the arse and set me back. Then I couldn’t get going until round two of the twos in the VFL, and by then I had to work on my fitness. During the games I was working on my fitness, so I didn’t have a good fitness base. My weight dropped and I had to put weight back on, which I had done during the pre-season. So I got caught out a bit, because my fitness had dropped away. It wasn’t until the end of last season that I found my feet, and it was too late.

What symptoms did you have?
TD: It started throughout last pre-season. I started to improve and then I hit the wall. I thought it was because it was my first pre-season that I was starting to struggle. I started going to bed early, and watched what I was eating. Then I struggled more and more. Even during the warm-up, I was really puffed.

And then how did you find out about the condition?
TD: Kelly O’Donnell asked if I was OK. I said to him that I was starting to struggle, but I thought it was because it was my first big pre-season. It wasn’t until he said ‘you should see the doctor’ that I saw Andrew Daff, who ran some tests, and they found that it was Graves’ disease. It’s a thyroid condition. Since then I’ve seen a specialist. Mine has been overactive, which has made me tired. I’m still on medication, and I was seeing a specialist monthly, but now it’s once every three months. But if I wasn’t playing footy, I wouldn’t have even noticed.

What did you have to do in your rehabilitation for the disorder? 
TD: I did literally nothing for six to eight weeks, aside from some stationary skills. Anything that got my heart rate up, I had to be steady on. After wearing a heart rate monitor, I couldn’t get it over a certain number - it wasn’t very high. So, if I got into a jog, then I had to stop. I had to wait before I could join in again. I was seeing a specialist when the tests got under way, and then he gave me the all clear, so that was good.

Have you had any further problems with it this pre-season?
TD: I haven’t had a problem at all this pre-season. I feel the fittest I’ve ever been, so there are no dramas at all. As long as I’m on the medication, nothing should turn up. By now, they could’ve taken me off the medication, but there is a 50 per cent chance of it coming back, so I’m on one tablet a day, just in case. If I had made it through the pre-season and then fell off it, I’d be back to square one again. So it’s just a precaution.

Comparing last year to now in terms of your health and fitness - it must be significant. Can you explain the difference?
TD: I feel completely different - stronger, fitter, faster and confident. I’m now able to run out games.

How have you found backline coach Jade Rawlings and senior coach Mark Neeld for your development?
TD: Jade especially, and Nicho (Andrew Nichol) have been telling me what I need to work on. Even in my reviews, it might be little things. I went back to some old habits, and they were able to tell me. We’ve got a standard we want to reach, and I’m trying to reach that standard. They’ve definitely been helpful.

Now in your second AFL-listed season, how have you reflected on your journey so far?
TD: It’s definitely gone quick. Just seeing the new boys come in - you almost don’t realise you’ve been in the system for two years. It just flies by, so you’ve got to make the most of it.

What was it like moving to Melbourne, considering you were originally from Kerang, and lived in Geelong?
TD: I’m used to it now, because I was boarding at Geelong Grammar for two years. Most of my mates have moved to Bendigo to do apprenticeships, so we’re all pretty close still, and I catch up with them regularly. I live with my brother and one of my mates, and I’ve got mates who come down to [Melbourne], so it hasn’t changed that much.

What are your aims for 2012?
TD: Personally, I just want to be training as hard as I can, or harder than players in my position like Jared Rivers, James Frawley, James Sellar and those sorts of boys. I want to learn from them and ask advice from them and see what I can work on, so I can give myself the best chance of having a crack in the big league.

Have you set round one as a goal to make your AFL debut? 
TD: I just want to get through the pre-season, which I’ve done, and then play in the NAB Cup. So I’ve played one NAB Cup game, and if I played in round one, I’d be absolutely stoked. But my main goal is to just get a crack at some stage this year. I haven’t set a date for when I want to [debut]. So I’ll do everything I can, and let the rest take care of itself.