The majority of his teammates may have played in last year’s grand final, but for those that didn’t – such as Jason Cloke, Brodie Holland, Rhyce Shaw, Matthew Lokan, Ben Kinnear and Richard Cole – Woewodin, who was a member of Melbourne’s losing grand final side in 2000, has some advice.
“It’s a big week and you’ve just got to relax for the next three or four days and don’t play the game over in your head. It’s important that you don’t do that. You just make sure you come ready come Saturday afternoon,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people getting around wishing you well and patting you on the back, but it’s really important that you just block that out also and just relax and take it easy.”
Woewodin has played in ten finals and is hopeful his experience in September will be useful to some of his teammates in the lead-up to the grand final.
His main aim however, is to perform on the day.
“I live for the big games, and all the preliminary finals I’ve played in my time I’ve done really well, but I just wanted to keep doing it,” Woewodin said of his brilliant opening quarter effort against Port Adelaide in the preliminary final last weekend.
“It’s unfortunate that my last three quarters weren’t as good (last Saturday), and I let myself down there. But when I wasn’t getting possessions I was trying to do something else for the team and helping anyone out just to try and help the team out in any way I could.”
Woewodin admits he has few clear memories of grand final day in 2000, when Melbourne was defeated by Essendon. Like his skipper Nathan Buckley this year, Woewodin had won the Brownlow Medal five days before the most important match of his life.
“I honestly don’t remember much of 2000. It’s an amazing thing, once that day finished I just did not want to remember it. It was just such a hurtful day,” he said.
“I remember the parade. It was just a fantastic day and we were told to lap that up and really enjoy the experience. The last training you remember and I remember the bit of the few functions I had to attend and that was pretty gruelling. There was a lot to do.”
