FIT and firing.

One of the most common pre-season cliches of all rings true for Adam Cerra, who is entering his fourth season in Navy Blue - and eighth overall in the AFL - in good spirits.

Speaking at the end of last year about his off-season trip to Doha, Cerra, who recently committed his future to the Blues for an extra five seasons, said he enters the upcoming campaign in a manner which the ultra-professional midfielder is delighted with.

Chatting to Triple M Rush Hour, Cerra said “touch wood, but I’ve never felt better going into a season”.

“The end of last season was frustrating, I had one of those years riddled by injury. My off-season was about getting to work,” Cerra said.

“I’ve had a full pre-season, and I want to play 20-plus games and contribute week in and week out.”

While his Carlton teammates were undergoing a massive session at IKON Park as pre-season approached its conclusion, Cerra himself missed his first session of the summer - experiencing the most exciting of new beginnings away from the Club.

Absent from training, Cerra had a fairly suitable reason, as Saturday marked his wedding day with wife Claudia.

Cerra said even though they just got engaged in November, it was a long-awaited day.

“We met in Year 12, at a New Year’s party at the end of Year 11. We were long distance for a while when I made the move [to Fremantle], but now back and we’re married.

“I held it together. Claudia sobbed the entire way down the aisle and a few people when I was looking out in the ceremony were crying, but I was dry-eyed - I’m just not a very emotional bloke!”

Cerra made sure to double check with AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss very early in the piece that the Saturday 8 February date was free, which it was… until a schedule change meant there wasn’t.

“There wasn’t training originally, not when I made the wedding booking. But then it turned out there was a big open session.

“I got the day off which was nice… I was very thankful to the Club. I’ve had a full pre-season luckily, so I wasn’t chasing any kilometres or high speed metres. I went for a jog in the morning, got the wedding nerves out of the way and that was enough.

“There were 20 people at the ceremony and 60 at dinner. Everyone was asking about the big Italian wedding, but we kept it nice and small.”

Honeymoon planning will take a back seat for the time being, with the upcoming 2025 season - plus two cats - to take care of in the meantime.

“The honeymoon is on hold… Gather Round, we’re going to Adelaide. No, we’ll wait until the off-season and go away somewhere, but it’s definitely not the period for honeymoons right now.

“We’ve got two cats, Dennis and Elaine. Elaine is from Seinfeld, one of my favourite TV shows - I say it to kids now and they’ve got no idea. Dennis is from a kids movie Hotel Transylvania - not Dennis Armfield, but I might start saying that now though!”