Dan’s Diary – good luck to the rising star
This time last year Dan was named the Rising Star, so he has a few words of advice for this year’s winner…
It is definitely an exciting time of year to be playing footy and it’s great to have an opportunity to play in a final this week.
We think if we play the way we want to play, we’re confident we can be a threat during the finals.
Last year it was an interesting week for me, having the Rising Star Award, going down to Melbourne for that and at the same time trying to focus on that final.
It was a new experience, so good luck to Sam Reid and also to Luke Shuey, who is an old mate of mine who now plays for the West Coast Eagles. Preferably Reidy wins but if he doesn’t, then I hope it’s Luke.
There are a lot of commitments straight after you win it, interviews and so on, but the best thing is if Reidy wins, a lot of the coaches and players will make sure his mind and focus is about the weekend and playing his part for the team.
That’s the beauty of our club, we have so much support that you don’t have to go far without getting the right bit of advice.
I’m sure it will be the same if Shuey wins, or Dyson Heppell from Essendon, who’s another favourite who’ll be playing finals this weekend.
For me last year, Jude and Macca sent me messages and Horse and Roosy both rang me, firstly to congratulate me, but at the same time they all wanted to make sure my mind was focused on our next training session and the final that coming weekend, which was against Carlton.
It was great to get the individual accolade but you quickly switch back to the team.
We have a number of players who could be playing their first final this weekend in Craig Bird, Matt Spangher, Alex Johnson, Luke Parker, Sam Reid and Gary Rohan, and I remember that feeling from last year.
We all got some good advice from our assistant coach Leigh Tudor the other day. He spent 2009 and 2010 at St Kilda, and was at Geelong before that, so he’s got plenty of experience when it comes to finals!
Lurka (as everyone calls him) told us not to change your mindset or your preparation too much. Try to keep it similar, don’t do too much more or less than you normally do, it’s all about doing the basics really well when it comes to finals. Being hard at the footy and getting your work rate up.
You want to do that every week but there’s no doubt that the pressure goes up a cog in finals footy and you have less time with the ball so those basics come into even more. Tackles, contested footy, who can work harder, and who can do that for longer - that team generally wins the game.
If we look back to that semi final that we lost to the Bulldogs last year, it was really just a lapse at the end of the second quarter and start of the third that cost us the game. Five or 10 minute lapses in a final can cost you dearly, and that’s what happened. Finals footy is about being on for four full quarters.
There’s a real buzz and energy around the club this week and we have to make sure we channel it right. So we’ll go in with a mindset against St Kilda to play our trademark footy. I hope you can get to Etihad Stadium to cheer us on.