You've been at the club for just over 12 months now so how are you going?
JA: I'm so much more settled after 12 months. I moved twice last year – from Brisbane to Balwyn and from Balwyn to where I live now, out Essendon way. Getting to training would take me half-an-hour – minimum – and now it takes me 12 minutes to come to Whitten Oval and six minutes to the uni [Victoria University]. From that point of view, it's been great.

Last year I was 75kgs and now I'm 85kgs. Why I mentioned the weight is because I'm feeling much healthier. 

Had you experienced that much of a transition before in your life?
JA: No I hadn't. When I got drafted at the end of '94, I was already living in Brisbane with my mum, so I stayed at home. I went to training from home. Even as a 30-year-old, anyone that moves will tell you that it's stressful and it's no different no matter how old you are. I've also got a young family as well – a wife and young daughter. They're all happy and they love Melbourne, so that helps.

Along with settling into a new club, you also had to contend to with hamstring problems last season. How did you cope with that? 
JA: I look back in hindsight and think: "Where did I go wrong?". I went wrong because I had been training since August and I was too light.

Were you over enthusiastic to impress your new club?
JA: Yeah, that's all it was. I still fell for the old "trying too hard". Every session, I was trying to impress. I just got too sick and I was unhealthy, so that was the reality of what I was doing. This year I'm carrying some extra kilos, but I'm feeling much healthier. My hammies feel great and my body feels great. That's the plus of it.

What about earning the respect of your new teammates and making friendships within the club – it's still never easy regardless of how old you are. How did you find that from your perspective?
JA: That's always difficult. There's no doubt the first year is always the hardest and from there it does get easier. You know the blokes, you know their names and you know what they're about. Scotty Welsh has just come into the club and he's where I was last year. He's got to start again and it's not easy.

It's good to be playing good footy and last year we were OK, but then we unfortunately fell away a bit towards the end of the season. But life's fine and my life's great, so you can't have everything.

Just on the on-field aspect; there has been a lot of talk about the club since the end of the 2007 season. What did you make of the season from your perspective?
JA: Last season is done now. It was a great learning year for all of us. We had up to 10 blokes without full pre-seasons and this year it's down to two blokes. That will give us a better start. We'll get it right and we were our own worst enemy. We've all made changes and the coaching staff wants to change things, so there will be changes next year – they won't be drastic changes but they will be enough to be noticeable.

Despite the advances in resources and technology at clubs, do you still subscribe to the "keep it simple" theory? For example, much of the club's success will come through players fulfilling pre-seasons and staying healthy throughout the year. Is it as simple as that?
JA: I think so, the longer I look at it. I see all of these programs – this is my 14th pre-season – and I've seen 14 different programs. None of them have been the same. Would you say that they've worked better because we've won flags? I don't think so. The best year I was involved with a team was probably 2001. All of those guys were fit and healthy and everyone had a pre-season. The more players that have pre-seasons – the better your chances are, I think.

As long as you've got a pretty stable group and you've got a mature group and a good coaching group, I don't think you can be that far off the pace.

Do you believe the drafts and Total Player Payments have evened the competition to the point that last season's results are irrelevant heading into a new year?
JA: In the '80s, the competition was a bit like the Premier League. You knew the top four sides each year – it was just a matter of which position.

The side that came last in '98 was Brisbane. The side that came last in '99 was Collingwood. Three years later they were playing off in the Grand Final in 2002. You look at the bottom three teams this year and they could reach the top eight next year – even Carlton could play off in the finals.

You could look at it and say that we've been crap this year and things didn't work out, but next year we've got a few blokes back, got some new players and some good draft choices. Things can turn around pretty quickly and the competition is pretty good like that. I always think that with players it's 95 per cent how you manage them and five per cent tactics and preparation.

Do you think the evenness of the AFL can actually put greater expectation on clubs? For example, the Bulldogs entered last season as one of the leading premiership contenders after an outstanding 2006. But the reality was that several players had interrupted pre-seasons, which ultimately made it difficult for sustained success.
JA: It's hard to quantify. I think our expectations should be to play in the top eight. Last year, the prediction was top four and we had that too, which is fine. Let's be realistic; I don't think we're flag contenders, but I think we can be good enough to play in the top eight or top six and if things go your way, you don't know what can happen. That's being realistic and that's what we need to be.

This is the second Bulldogs list you've been involved in. How do you rate the 2008 list compared to last year's version, considering you've lost the likes of Chris Grant, Luke Darcy, Brett Montgomery and Matthew Robbins through retirement?
JA: I think this is a better list. The experience we lost is not a great drama, for lots of reasons. Chris Grant obviously didn't really contribute much last year due to injury, unfortunately and Luke Darcy was a bit the same. He certainly wasn't the player he was before his knee injuries and it was tough for him. He played the season out and he was lucky to be playing AFL footy in the end. He, certainly this year, wouldn't have got a game.

'Monty', of course, was out after the first round and he would've been OK this year, but we can cover those types of players easier. I don't think that's a problem.

I see our year on as a much better list because it's another year down the track and there is a bunch of games into the kids. We saw some good guys coming through in [Andrejs] Everitt, [Jarrod] Harbrow and then we've got a couple of experienced players to add on. I'll play better and I think this year will be much better with more guys having pre-seasons, so this should be a much better campaign from that point of view.

Personally, what are you hoping to achieve out of the 2008 season?
JA: I think they want me to play mostly up forward. Hopefully, I can be our leading tackler up forward. I'd like to play a bit more in the midfield, but that's up to the coaching staff. I might just sneak up there anyway and runaround and do my thing.

I just know it's going to be a better year, because I'm more much better and healthier. I'm not putting any more pressure on myself, but in what I know, it can only go up from everything I saw and learned last year. I'm going to be in a much better state from the start of the year.

Now that you've been at the club for just over a year, how do you feel your role and status within the club has evolved?
JA: It's evolving. From my experience, you're always a leader anyway. You don't need to be told you are – you already are. I'm helping out with the tackling this year and I'm enjoying that. I really think that's a key component to us going forward and to have some say in that will be really good. To be honest, as you get older, you need the challenges like that.

You go to training and you train, but it's not the same as actually being able to feel like you're contributing and teaching people, because that's probably the greatest gift that you can give. You're on the field, but you're also helping people to become better players and that's the most exciting thing about what I've done in the last couple of months.

You've still got a few years left at the highest level, but how much are you looking beyond football at the moment?
JA: Everyday. I think I'll be involved in football. I think I'll go and coach. I'd love to coach my own side in the VFL and be an assistant coach at an AFL club – that's the ideal way. [I'd like to] have my own team and learn the ropes, but not in the spotlight, so to speak, and then just take it from there.

If you were coaching, would your main trait be very much focused on people?
JA: Absolutely. I'm really confident I could do a good job – here and now – even this far out. I'm learning all of the time and the more chances I get to present – whether it's helping out in meetings or tackling – I really want to do that, so I can get those skills that you're going to need. Talking in front of a group is not that easy, but the more you do it, the better it is.