WE HAD a great win on Saturday night. Everyone contributed and there wasn't a weak link at all. Our pressure really typified the way we all played.

We had confidence going into the game, because we'd beaten Sydney twice this year and we'd played them just two weeks beforehand. We also match up pretty well against the Swans, and we knew we just had to do the same as we did a couple of weeks previous and half way through the season when we beat them.

The best aspect of the win was the way everyone chipped in and didn't want to let their teammates down. Our pressure and tackling was also good, and when we do that, it puts a lot of pressure on teams and forces them to turn the ball over.

I think finals do bring out the best in everyone, with just the buzz around training and with the atmosphere, as well as rocking up to games with the added incentive of playing in the finals.

It's obviously different to playing home-and-away football; you know you're one step closer, I suppose, to what every young kid dreams of.

Every player that is playing right now in finals is playing for what they dreamed of – the opportunity of winning the premiership.

Recovery after the game was buoyant – none of us had had much sleep on Sunday morning, as by the time you get home from post-match recovery, you're back in the next morning for massage and to get your wounds checked out.

Sometimes when you lose, it's hard going in there, but after a win, it's always a lot easier.

We always do recovery straight after the game at the Lexus Centre, and then you have something to eat and try and wind down from the game.

When you first get there, you ride on the bikes for about 10 minutes and then walk in the water. We also have ice baths and hot tubs, rotating between the two.

On Sunday, we do basically the same but adding in a few weights and a bit more functional stuff.

Since then, we've had a session at St Kilda sea baths on Monday, where we just rotated from the hot baths to the cold ocean water, and before that we did a few light skills, and a bit of a jog and stretch.

We're leaving for Perth on Thursday morning, and we'll train once we get over there – we'll go straight to the ground to have a light run once we land. Then, we'll relax, sleep and eat, and do whatever we usually do before a game.

We always do lots of recovery but I suppose we're doing a bit more than usual this week because it's a short week, Saturday night through to Friday night, as well as travelling to Perth.

So, we've chucked in a couple of extra recovery sessions, which you don't mind doing at this time of the year.

We already know we match up pretty well against the Eagles, and we know their game plan pretty well, so that definitely helps us a bit.

We know what we've got to do, and we've beaten them the last couple of years. Even though they might have beaten us in Perth, we know we went pretty close earlier in the year.

It's just a matter of following our game plan and doing a lot of what we did on Saturday night against the Swans, just pressuring the Eagles and making sure we run the ball, because it's a big ground, and we’ll treat it like it's our last game.

It's very exciting to still be alive in the second week, after last year when we got knocked out pretty convincingly in the first week. We wanted to redeem ourselves after that, and now we've got an opportunity where we can create something.

We know what's going to happen if we lose – we've just got to go out there and play our best footy and leave no stone unturned.

 To all the Collingwood supporters out there, it will be worth the money if you do go over there, because we need all the support we can get as the West Coast people can be pretty vocal.

If we can keep them quiet just a little bit with the Collingwood supporters being as vocal as they normally are, then it will probably go a long way towards helping us win.