Luke Breust speaks ahead of finals campaign

um well luk obviously back in bence what's what's the emotion what's the feeling this time around um it's a good question I yeah did I think we could get back here this quick I don't know I was always hopeful um but yeah now standing here few days out from a elimination F against the dogs it's yeah an amazing feeling it's sort of justifies the reasons why I hung around and believe so much in this group and the coaching staff and the club and um yeah I can't wait to get out there against the dogs given there was you know talk about rebuilds and new coach coming in did you think that at this point in your career that you would be back playing fin um as I said I think you you believe in everyone at the footy Club the coaching staff the players um did I think at the time we had it had the players here to be able to play finals again not sure I thought there was probably a few key key players that we needed that um or or we had internal development that was going to have to really shoot up and and fortunately that has sort of happened um I think some of our development from like will day and Dylan Moore and and these sort of guys has been been amazing and it's probably the one of the main reasons why we're back in this position and playing finals again so um as I said I was always hopeful and um yeah luckily for me at the moment it's um reaffirm that decision to stay and um so glad to be a part of it now yeah you mentioned that there that faft that happened you feel I'm sure it wouldn't have been easy at the time with senior players traded out and leaving the club you feel like that was all Justified it's all work uh yeah it's never easy um making those sort of calls um you you sort of get to the start of this year where you're zipping five and it's just like oh my God are we like are we actually on the right track um you the back end of last year was I thought was really exciting and then to get to here and for someone in my position it's like okay if this continues it's like are you out of the side is your career um going to finish and and this could be my last year versus it turns around and you can continue to play a role you can continue to develop these guys um and all of a sudden the future looks pretty bright and I've got more energy everyone around the place has got more energy and you you want to stay and be involved in it all so um yeah I don't know whether it justifies it but um it certainly it means that the guys have stayed and have got to work um they're starting to get the benefits now you want to stay and involved next year yeah for sure yeah um I think the only reason I feel like my footy's been probably the my down year I guess of my career um I've been able to sort of slip into a role that um I've been able to fulfill now and and give back to these sort of young guys on and off the field and um yeah my body is probably the only thing that I feels let me down this year so if I can get that right in the offseason then I'd love to go again how frustrating has that been yeah pretty frustrating I've been uh very lucky with my body uh my body has hardly let me down across 11 or 12 AFL Seasons so um to get to the start of the year I just didn't respect it in the offseason um every good year that I'd had had been on the back of 85 90% of preseason get the work in and then you'll work it out through the year um so for me to tell myself mentally that okay you need to pull back and do 60% but you can still then have a really good year I just couldn't get it through my own head um I was probably in my own way um to be honest so I learned some yeah pretty harsh lessons at the start of this year that I've I've got to listen to my body a little bit more and and maybe a be a little bit smarter if I want to continue my career into a 17th 18th year um and try and work out is it like a k Ma story where you you can do a little bit less but still get yourself into a really good spot to perform how important is your role as a final psychologist uh it's a it's an interesting one because you don't want to fill their heads with too much like oh this could happen or or the the pregame Walmart's going to be a bit different or um you've got a welcome to country and the anthem that you got to get through as well so you sort of got five minutes of extra nervous anxiety before the ball's bounc or like so you don't want to fill them with too much um but anyone who comes to me and is open to asking questions and I'm I'm always happy to to chat away and um even things like a night routine U what does that look like um what mistakes have I made in the past with with a night routine do you have asleep do you not have asleep um I remember before the 2012 Grand Final I laid there for two and a half hours before I could get to sleep and it just did my head in um and then I remember speaking to Andrew Russell the next morning he's like M it's fine like you're resting if you don't have a wink of sleep that night you're still well rested and you can still perform your role that next day and then as soon as you get into a mindset like that then um yeah before you not you waking up the next morning and it's game day what about the heat and energy of 90,000 these kids a little look at it with a Dusty game I guess but um do you do you help them through that or just hope that they Thrive uh you can yeah you can certainly help them especially when they go to the bench or um breaks when you get a chance to really reset I think I think the main message for the Heat and finals footy and it's contested all this sort stuff it's like I think you prefer to lose playing the way we want to play than than lose going against it like a different style um so I think that'll be the main message Continue to stick to what we know has worked over this last 12 to 15 weeks um and we prefer to lose playing that way than going away from our our style and game plan and um and getting beat that way just back on the decision to stick around the Giants was the one that was heavily linked to you was there a moment in last year's final series as they you thought been me or did you of have that you haven't played in five six years yeah it's hard not to think like that sometimes um but at the same time uh you sort of got your own stuff going on and focusing on the offseason and trying to get yourself right and and what else can I do around this footy Club to to help these young guys get back there so um yeah you look on with a bit of Envy at times but um now we're playing finals again and it's um it was the best decision for my family at the time and um yeah I'm very happy like a one Club player for me he's been like high on the priority list so it would have um yeah it would have been a huge call for me to to go 300 yeah let's not think about that just yet um we got to get through this week but uh yeah it'll be a special Milestone to get there if if that happens and um yeah we'll deal with that next week if it get if if we get there with your body you just resign not resign but are you expecting the sub roll this final series is that or can you can you feel like you can provide more or you happy content doing yeah just be a conversation with Mitch so he's been he's been very good to me this year um I had that sort of five or six weeks off early in the year and then it's been about trying to then manage and and what can I get out in this back end can I play four games in a row or full games um I don't really know I'd have to see like I've I've pulled up sore after four games before but then I've had four in a row where I was really good so it's just an unknown um so we'll just take it yeah each week I'll I'll be honest with Sam he'll be honest with me and um as I said whatever role I can play for this team whether it's on or off the field I'll be I'll be doing