AFTER 11 weeks of training, travelling, running 14-20km a match and taking a physical battering every weekend, a break is absolutely crucial.

The split round has been a welcome innovation this past decade.

At this time of year you can see the wear and tear on your teammates, coaches and football staff. Having the week’s rest prepares everyone for a big 11 rounds to finish the season.

I would say the physical and mental benefits of the break are legitimately 50/50.

Physically, we'll still train four times this week with the same weights and conditioning. But not having to prepare and go through the stringent match routine is really important mentally.

Players will use the break in different ways to freshen up. A lot of our interstate guys at Fremantle will head home to catch up with their families, while some of the guys are heading down to Margaret River to get away from footy and relax in that part of the world.

One or two of the surfers in the side might try and sneak a wave in as well.

Personally, I've tried to get away from Perth in the past. That's included heading down to the state's southwest. I've been up to Broome before in the break and also to Exmouth.

This particular break I'm staying in Perth. I'm hoping to spend some time with my girlfriend Lauren and catch up with some people that we haven't really seen all that much this year.

For our injured guys, the break will be used in a couple of ways.

We've got a lot of key players on the sidelines at the moment, and they've been unbelievably diligent and steadfast in making sure their injuries recuperate as fast as possible.

While the break can help them fast-track their injuries, sometimes you don't realise how hard players work both with the physios and strength and conditioning staff while they're recovering.

It's important that they actually get a break as well.

There's no question we've been hit hard with injuries, and our 3-8 win-loss record is not ideal. But the first half of our 2009 season is certainly seen as a glass half full from my perspective.

I think it's great that we've been able to blood seven debutants including six first-year players. That's unmatched within the AFL this year.

Having those young guys performing allows our supporters and sponsors and people in general to be quite pragmatic.

We're not going to rest on that though, and after the break I hope we'll come out and consistently play the way we want to play.

Geelong and St Kilda have been able to do that for the first 11 rounds with aplomb and in essence that's what needs to happen eventually at Fremantle.

That’s the challenge for everyone at our club, including the kids. But right now they could probably do with a break as much as anyone.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.