Speaking before the Lions’ final training session on Friday at the Stadium, Matthews said: “We’ll tell you tomorrow night after the game. It should help. Experience in anything should be better than inexperience,” Matthews said in glorious Sydney conditions.
“But over my time in footy, because you don’t play finals footy much – it’s only once a year – it’s not as though you’re playing them every second month.”
“And plenty of sides that actually haven’t had finals experience have played really well in the finals.”
“I guess the Swans are maybe the example of that a little, in what they did in the first week of the finals.”
“You know the logic, but the reality doesn’t always work out that way.”
Matthews said he didn’t care to compare this year’s Brisbane side to the Lions’ back-to-back teams of 2001-02, adding that his first objective was to overcome the Swans.
“We’ve played them twice and they’ve beaten us twice. We’ve got to do it better than we did and we’ve said that all week and that’s a fact,” Matthews said.
He said that aside from the nagging knee injury to champion skipper Michael Voss, the Lions were ‘well placed’ heading into the game.
“We’ve got a good chance of going on and doing our best against the Swans. I don’t think there is any reason why each of our individuals shouldn’t be feeling good about their footy and I guess that’s all that really matters,” Matthews said.
The three-time premiership coach said the sense of occasion, which would see the first AFL final staged at Telstra Stadium, would be one to remember.
“It’s only since the Olympics that this stadium has been available, so this has been the first chance for 70(000) or 80,000 people to get to an AFL game in Sydney, so that’s great for the sport,” Matthews said.
