EARLY September has meant Mad Mondays, post-season surgery and holidays for Carlton players for the last seven years, but Bryce Gibbs for one is glad that's not the case in 2009.
This year the Blues find themselves in the finals for the first time since 2001 and Gibbs says he and his teammates are out to make the most of it.
"It's a really exciting time of the year," Gibbs says. "The sun's coming out, the weather's getting a bit warmer and the supporters are getting really excited and we are, too.
"I'm just really rapt that we're here in September. Now we've just got to go out and give it all we've got.
"It's been such a rollercoaster year with wins, losses, injuries and stuff like that. Sometimes you pull up sorer than you usually would and you do go through some emotional highs and lows, but we're here now.
"We've been training since October running around Princes Park and up and down hills at camps and this is what you do that for. To be able to have a crack at it this week makes it all worth it."
Gibbs, 20, has been instrumental in Carlton's move up the ladder this season. The first player called at the 2006 NAB AFL Draft has run out for all 22 games this year and finished with a more than handy average of 27 disposals.
"I really wanted to have a good crack in the pre-season and make myself into a midfielder this year," he says.
"I played a lot down back at the start of my career, then through the middle here and there and even a bit up forward.
"I really just wanted to cement a midfield spot and go from there. Finding some consistency was my main goal because I thought I'd played some good footy early on, but I'd also some pretty average footy as well."
Gibbs gets regular advice from his famous footballing dad Ross who, along with Gibbs' mum, will travel to Brisbane to watch their son's first AFL final.
A member of Glenelg's 1985 and '86 SANFL premiership teams, Ross has played a huge role in cultivating Gibbs' professional approach to his football – evident since he first arrived at Carlton.
"I go out there to perform at my best every time I go out there and if I don't do that I'm not satisfied," Gibbs says.
"In my first year I liked to think that I was in the team based on performance and not because I was a number one draft pick coming into a bottom side because that's what happens. I wanted to have earned my spot and if I played a bad game then I had to take that on board and respond.
"I think I'm getting there slowly. I've done my apprenticeship now and I've got that taste."
Gibbs cites the ability to adapt to several different roles within a game as one of the major hurdles he continues to work on and gives credit to the Blues' development staff headed up by Darren Harris, Robert Harvey and David Teague.
"They give us little focuses during the week that you go out and try and improve on," he says.
"We sit down with those guys and go through our tapes to sort out what we did well and what we didn't during games.
"We're having a bit of a say as well which I think is great. We sit down and chat about things that we think might need improving or changed for the better.
"We're encouraged to voice our opinion to the leadership group and some things have been changed after the development group has spoken up, which has been fantastic.
"I think it really is an important part of how the team has improved this year."
