If these words didn’t come from someone of the standing of Mick Malthouse you might have been tempted to say, "Thanks, Captain Obvious."
Simple the statement may be, but it sums up perfectly why finals are different.
Twelve months of hard work and dedication is on the line in two-and-half hours, and every last sinew is being strained. And everyone is watching.
Even in this age of 24-hour sports radio and internet fan forums, the scrutiny of home and away football is nothing compared to a final.
Every match stands alone – covered on free-to-air television and by every radio station.
Presidents and board members have usually returned from overseas winter trips.
The pressure is on.
The weekend just past was another perfect example.
Players and game-plans are tested to the limit. Every kick, mark and handball seems crucial – but even more glaring are the mistakes.
It’s an environment in which some thrive and others struggle.
When it’s all over the post-mortems can be brutal. Team lists that seemed promising 24 hours earlier can all of a sudden look full of holes. Cards are marked – often in permanent ink.
Some can have poor finals, or even finals series, and come back and redeem themselves … but not many.
The coaches are not immune.
Dean Laidley and Neil Craig both have been outstanding home-and-away coaches. Yet the murmurings have begun about their finals' performances.
Laidley has just one finals win from five matches, while Craig has led Adelaide to victories just twice from seven September appearances.
Maybe both are victims of being able to squeeze the most out of their list and get their teams to an unrealistic level. In Craig’s case injury has often been a factor.
The North collapse is one of the most mysterious stories of the season. Laidley’s public handling of the loss to Port Adelaide and his bizarre ‘tunneling’ diversion tactics in the lead-up to the Sydney game are but a small part of a disastrous fortnight. Unfortunately the senior players failed to stand up at the critical moments.
There are some big calls to make on several players in the next few weeks, but overall there has have been many gains in 2008 and the season has been reasonably successful.
Next in the firing line are the Western Bulldogs and their coach Rodney Eade.
Friday night’s semi-final is the biggest game of Eade’s coaching stint at the Bulldogs and it comes against his old side the Sydney Swans.
We all know how that Eade’s time at the Swans, which began with a Grand Final appearance, ended bitterly after an on-going dispute with chairman Richard Colless.
Memories of the that unpleasantness were brought back at the end of last season when Dogs boss David Smorgon criticised Eade publicly after a review of football operations resulted in a restructure, with the coaches’ powers diminished.
I’m not sure that Eade really needed Smorgon to come out in the media this week and remind everyone that the players ‘gave in without a yelp’ last Friday night. Unfortunately for the coach, he couldn’t argue with the president’s words.
Maybe the players were over-aroused by the build up to the finals, because they certainly froze in the Friday night lights.
Eade decided to embrace the significance of the occasion and hoped the words of past Bulldogs great Chris Grant and Kangaroo ‘Shinboner of the Century’ Glenn Archer would rub off on the players in a moving finals launch.
Unfortunately the only thing that rubbed off were the notes a nervous and reluctant Archer had written on his hand for his speech.
There will be no guest speakers this week.
The lack of a genuine power forward is still an issue for the Bulldogs. Marks inside 50 were a key indicator in all finals at the weekend.
While it won’t help them on Friday night at least the Dogs have some hope that top five draft pick Jarrad Grant will fill this role in the future if he can get his body and attitude right.
More immediate hope is provided by history.
Of the 16 Qualifying Final losers since the new final eight system was introduced only two have failed to bounce back and win their semi-finals the following week. They were Port Adelaide in 2001 and a severely injury-depleted West Coast which lost to Collingwood in extra-time last year.
Like North Melbourne the year has been a positive one for the Bulldogs no matter what happens on Friday Night. But unlike the Roos, the Dogs have recruited for the ‘now’. If they fail to succeed in September either this year or next it could indeed be ‘final’ for the coach.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
