This is my 13th diary. Unlucky 13.. or lucky 13 depending on who you speak to.

Whether you believe in it or not, luck was very much present at last weekend’s game against Carlton.

I often think about luck when I play footy. Whether the ball falls to the front or the back of a pack. Whether a gust of wind suddenly appears as you’re having a set shot on goal. Whether the ball bounces up to you or if it rolls out of bounds for a throw in. Examples of luck are countless in every game.

Whether it exists or not, the footy gods were not giving any of their luck to Tayla Harris on the weekend. Her three posters were a prime example of how unlucky you can be.

Another example of bad luck was Meghan McDonald’s head clash resulting in two black eyes and the biggest egg on a person’s head I’ve ever seen. Meg Mac is now known as Egg Mac thanks to Paul Hood who came up with that nickname in his post-match address.

Even though luck is a large part of footy, there’s one thing you can do to give yourself better luck - practice.

Soph Van De Heuval’s straight set shot on goal came from hours of goal kicking practice. Rocky’s exceptional tackles came from hours of work perfecting and modifying her tackling technique. Maddy Keryk’s ability to break tackles, escape her opponents and kick forward comes from breaking tackles night after night at training.

Repetition and practice will make us better as a team and we will continue to learn the more games we play.

Last weekend’s game was my first at GMHBA Stadium and it was everything I hoped it would be.

Running out for the warm up and seeing all our Cats supporters in the stands filled me with confidence. I heard girls cheering “Go Rocky, Go Maddy”. In the final quarter a Geelong chant started giving the team a much needed lift with minutes to go. It was awesome singing the song at the end of the game in front of our fans. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

This weekend we are away against Brisbane, so the playing group will need to draw on our experience from last week to get that extra edge. We will have to think about all our fans cheering from back home in Geelong.

Our training this week has set us up for the Lions. We’ve practiced things we needed to work on and hopefully the footy gods are kind to us and give us an extra little bit of luck.