BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss believes his team deserves to be playing in the second week in September.
This year is the first time the Lions have made the finals since they lost the 2004 grand final to Port Adelaide, and Voss said it had been a steady process to rebuild since then.
"I think that for the last two or three years they've been on the cusp of being able to play finals football," he said from the MCG on Thursday afternoon.
"I would have thought it was a natural progression for us, but you've got to rely on a lot of things for that to happen. Although they've been great for us, we haven't had to rely on (Jonathan) Brown, (Simon) Black and (Luke) Power being awesome for us all the time.
"They've certainly had their moments, as you'd expect great players to do, but Mitch Clark's played well, Justin Sherman's stepped up [and] we've had a number of others that have been able to contribute.
"So I think that's where out genuine improvement's come from."
The Lions face the Western Bulldogs in Friday night's semi-final and Voss said the team couldn't rely on Brown and fellow key forward Daniel Bradshaw to do all the scoring.
"Big forwards, big occasions – I think that it's just our strength that we've got big forwards to be able to take some grabs. That's not necessarily what the Bulldogs rely on – they obviously rely on that flexibility and mobility and speed to be able to get around their forward line," he said.
"It works well for them, and it works well for us.
"We know that we need Brown and Bradshaw kicking goals for us ... but it's nice to have, as we have had across the year, others join in on the scoreboard.
"As the course of the season's gone on, I think guys are getting more used to lowering their eyes and seeing other guys inside the 50, as opposed to just Browny and Braddy."
The Bulldogs beat the Lions by three goals in round 20, but Voss said history – even recent history – was meaningless.
He admitted the Lions were in much better form now.
"I don't really think that if you played them last week whether that means it's going to translate into anything this week," he said.
"Whether we played them four weeks ago, or even played them last week, it's got no relevance to this week, other than we know each other a little bit better.
"How that affects the actual scoreboard at the end of the day ... I'm never really a big believer, otherwise why do we turn up every week if we know what's going to happen?"
