EVERYONE was very disappointed to lose by so much to Sydney at the weekend.It’s not good for your confidence. You can’t just forget about it though, eventhough you want to. You have to look at it and see where you went wrong beforeyou forget about it. They’re a quality side and they just showed the force theyare over the weekend. We were slightly off in a few areas and they made us looksilly. Their intensity was way better than ours.
We talked about it after the game but we were pretty quickto start focusing on the fact that we finished fifth and from where we’ve comefrom over the past few years, having not been in finals since 2001, that’sstill a great effort. It’s going to be a huge experience for our team becauseonly four or five guys have played finals footy before.
Because we’re playing Adelaide,the loss to them in round 14 (by 71 points) has entered our minds but welearned a lot from that game. They’re another quality outfit and verydisciplined so we’re looking forward to the challenge at the weekend. In a wayfor a young side to be playing their first final against quality opposition isa great opportunity for us.
Just like at the weekend, we can’t let anything slip in theway that we play the game. We can’t let them play they way they want to play.We’ve got to match them for intensity and endeavour and try and stop themgetting their game up and going.
This week we haven’t brought up anything about the last timeagainst Adelaide.We haven’t used anything from the weekend (against Sydney) either. We just want to concentrateon this week and we know that if our intensity and endeavour’s there we’regoing to be in the game. That’s been our focus all week. The season’s over andthis is like a new season for us.
As for my season, I’m quite happy with the way it’s gone, especiallyafter all the injuries I’ve had in the past. I played every game last year andI’ve only missed two this year. That’s doing a lot for my football and myconfidence. I think I’ve played some of my best football this year and I lookforward to playing some more good football while I’ve got the chance.
We’re making a point of the fact that we should be excitedand looking forward to the challenge in front of us. These things don’t comearound too often and our senior players have been waiting six years to haveanother crack at this. As a young group we want to play well for those guysbecause we want to succeed and we want them to go out in the right manner.They’ve got a few years ahead of them but this is our first step to bigger andbetter things.
We’re not doing anything different this week training wise.You don’t toy with those things, especially when you’ve been doing them for along time.
There’s a lot of hype in the media. You do have a read ofthe newspapers and obviously you can’t escape it because it’s really blown upin the papers. But it just makes you more excited when you read up on it andrealise how big it is.
The best thing about our footy club at the moment is we’reyoung and we’re vibrant. We think that we can win any day. You have to havethat attitude, otherwise you’re not going to get too far.
