While the same can be said of most contests, Ellis feels his team will do well to get Freo on the back foot early.
“Playing in Perth it’s very important to bounce out of the blocks in any game,” Ellis said.
“If you can start the game well, the 40,000 or so Fremantle supporters do seem to be a bit quieter and it is a lot easier to play when the crowd isn’t booing you.
“If you start well it doesn’t really matter what ground you play on.”
Having tasted premiership glory in 2008, Ellis is hopeful the lessons learned from that campaign will stand the Hawks in good stead against their less-experienced opposition.
“We obviously had a pretty successful campaign in 2008. I don’t think there are too many of our guys who haven’t played finals footy,” he said.
“We know what to expect. The intensity of the game will obviously lift over the next couple of weeks.
“But looking back to ’08 we didn’t have too many blokes with finals experience either and we loved the challenge. I’m sure they’ll be very eager as well.”
Ellis, 22, played all 22 premiership season games in 2010 to take his career tally to 69 games which is a far cry from last year when pre-season hip surgery stalled his progress.
“It’s good to get a bit of confidence back in your body,” he said.
“I think I’ve played some ok footy [this year] so I’d love to continue along those lines and contribute to the team’s success.
“I think my season personally has reflected the team’s form a bit. We were in a bit of an ordinary trough early in the year and I probably wasn’t playing the best football I could.
“In losing to Sydney and Port I had a couple of quiet weeks as well, but hopefully a bit more consistent form going into finals would be great.”
