As a man of routine and precise preparation, the sudden change in lifestyle brought about by a global pandemic had the potential to hit Harry Taylor for six.

This year is the first time in 27 years that Taylor has not played football in the month of April.

But the veteran defender has admitted that while the change has been challenging at times, surprisingly it hasn’t affected him as much as he anticipated.

“I’m very much a pragmatist in a lot of ways, very black and white in the way I have tried to set my life up,” Taylor said on K-Rock’s Cat Attack Podcast last week.

“I’m trying to be pragmatic, trying to deal with the facts when they become available and trying to do the best we can to navigate and work out way through it.”

True to his matter-of-fact approach to life, Taylor explained that this time of year he finds himself going into his own form of isolation as he focuses in on the beginning of the season.

“This time of the year you do go into some form of isolation because you’re getting into the grind of the season,” Taylor said.

“What that normally means for me is wake up, head into the footy club and do the training that I need to. Come back home and either do a bit of study, relax, do some recovery, help get dinner ready and the kids to bed. You roll into that bit of a cycle. Although we are not training or playing, there are some other similarities to what my normal period would look like.

“You get into some form of isolation, some form of routine where it’s very much a form of lockdown this time of season when you’re concentrating on performing and playing well.”

Taylor played his 262nd game for Geelong in round 1 when the Cats went down to GWS by 32-points and admitted there is a chance he has pulled on the blue and white hoops for the last time.

“I walked off the ground up in Sydney (in round 1) and thought that could possibly be the last time I put on the Geelong jumper at AFL level,” Taylor said.

“That’s the reality of the situation unfortunately, it’s only natural that you face those realities and probably beneficial in some ways that you face them head on and deal with them as best you can.”

The 33-year-old said he hasn’t yet made up his mind on what his future holds beyond 2020.

“I know there were some reports that I’d said it (2020) was my last season, but that wasn’t the case with me I was just trying to approach it (the season) on a week to week basis like I did last year.

“I really enjoyed that mentality and thought that mentality really helped me.”