It’s an exciting time of year. We’d certainly rather be lining up for a preliminary final tonight rather than going on holidays. When you think about it, getting to this point signals a really good turnaround for the boys, who were 1-3 at the beginning of the season and were not in the best of form. To be able to finish in the top four as minor premiers and to win the first final to earn a spot in a home prelim is really pleasing and we’re looking forward to this next challenge.

There is no doubt the week off came as a real positive for the playing group. As there are at any time of the season, there were plenty of sore bodies who really benefitted from not being exposed to the bash and crash of AFL football for one week. From all indications, the break was great for the boys, who have come back this week and trained really well and with good intensity.

Tonight we take on North Melbourne, who have had two good finals wins over Essendon and Geelong in the last fortnight. They started slowly against the Bombers, but then stepped it up in the second half and had a really good win. Quite often when you have a really good win in the finals it can flow into momentum for the next week, which is what happened for the Kangaroos in the Geelong match. I think they kicked three goals before Geelong blinked, so we will certainly be prepared for that and can’t let them do that against us tonight.

It’s been a very long time since we played North Melbourne. Round four to us almost feels like last season because we’re a totally different team in personnel and form. We’re just looking at what we can control and have been preparing for the best that North have got.

North Melbourne’s midfield has certainly stepped up this season and they’ve got real depth in that area. Along with their usual suspects like Andrew Swallow, Daniel Wells and Brent Harvey they’ve also got Jack Ziebell, Levi Greenwood and Ben Cunnington, so they’re batting pretty deep through the midfield. A few of those players have had breakout years, but we’re backing our mids and that’s obviously where the game is often won and lost, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.

We’ve been in this position before, so we’ve got a routine that we’ll stick to leading into tonight’s game. At the end of the day, once the game starts it’s about what happens in the next two hours, not what’s happened in the previous few weeks. It’s only natural that in the match before the big one that the mind can drift, but we know we’ve got to pull it back. At this time of year, as the teams get less and less, there are only four teams left who can make it into a Grand Final, we know we’re still a win away from securing that, which is why our focus is set firmly on the Roos at ANZ Stadium tonight.