IT WAS disappointing to finishthe home-and-away season as we did on the weekend.

It's hard to put our finger onwhy we didn't perform very well against Sydneyat the SCG, although we had some injuries early in the match, which unbalancedour line-up.

After our poor start, some ofthe players may have switched their attention to the finals, so all we can donow is quickly move on from the loss and turn our focus to Adelaide this Saturday at Telstra Dome.

One season is now over and a newseason starts this weekend.

Over the course of the yearwe've rebounded strongly after a loss, so we expect to bounce back thisweekend. We've played some really exciting footy so far this season, so thatgives us confidence tackling the most important part of the year.

At the start of the year, wewere unsure if we would make the finals – we certainly hoped we would – but tofinish fifth is a positive step in our development and now we've just got tosee how far we go in 2007.

We're pleased we've made thefinals and given ourselves an opportunity to participate in the business end ofthe season, which is great for our team – the youngest in the competition.

We're ahead of where most peoplethought we'd be this year, so there is no pressure on us from here on – whetherwe play one, two, three or four finals, it's going to be great experience fromour point-of-view.

The last time we played in thefinals was in 2001.

Shane Crawford, Trent Croad, BenDixon, Joel Smith and Richie Vandenberg all played in our most recent final – anine-point preliminary loss to Essendon. Damien Hardwick (now of course anassistant coach for us) and Danny Jacobs played for the Bombers that day.

We then drafted Luke Hodge, RickLadson, Campbell Brown and Sam Mitchell in 2001 and since 2004 we've recruiteda group which is coming through the ranks together – players such as JarrydRoughead, Lance Franklin and Jordan Lewis.

We hope that group will hold usin really good stead.

There has been some talk aboutus playing at Telstra Dome this weekend, but to be honest, it's better thanplaying Adelaideat AAMI Stadium in a final.

At least it's in Melbourne and we'll havethe majority of the crowd on our side.

We've played some really goodmatches at Telstra Dome, so it doesn't hold any fear for us and we're lookingforward to the challenge.