PLAYING in a finals series, we’ve come to expect a high standard of performance from our senior players who have been to the pinnacle before.

Experienced campaigners like Darren Glass, Dean Cox, Daniel Kerr, Adam Selwood and Andrew Embley have got the runs on the board and they very rarely put in bad performances in a final.

We were confident heading into the Carlton match last Saturday night that they would produce for us again, but there is always a bit of doubt on how the young players will perform, given the stage is new to them.

Overall, we believe we got a fair bit out of our young players, with most of them - including Luke Shuey, Chris Masten and Andrew Gaff - playing steady games. Young Paddy McGinnity was also able to influence the match coming on as the substitute. 

We had expectations on them as a group, and individually in the roles they were assigned, and they didn't let us down.

Scott Selwood and Jack Darling were particularly good for us, and playing in a close final like that is probably worth a few games' experience for them.

They are a group that has been maligned externally at times, but the expectations people put on young players can be unfair, with 18-year-olds expected to deliver within five minutes.

The majority take two to three years to show what they are capable of, and I think that's what we've seen with a lot of our young players this season.

Occasionally a player emerges that is capable of having a big impact immediately, and Darling has probably been in that mould for us this season.

He was solid in the first half against the Blues with his defensive pressure, but he really lifted offensively in the second half, hitting the scoreboard and taking a really impressive contested mark.

Jack's just a kid who loves a contest and loves to be there when everything is up and running.

He's shown a lot of composure and converted some set shots at pressure moments in our two finals, but that's his job.

You don't kick them all, but his role in the team is to kick those goals when he gets the opportunity.

Shuey is another player who took valuable experience into week two of the finals and he played a role in the win over Carlton with an equal game-high nine tackles. 

We'd like to think all of our young players learned something out of the Collingwood game and took that into week two, and they'll do that again this week against the Cats.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs