In finals footy, the players must do everything right

Roar Rookie

By Robert DiPierdomenico, 25 Aug 2009 Robert DiPierdomenico is a Roar Rookie

Tagged:: AFL, grand final, Hawthorn Hawks, Robert DiPierdomenico

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Hawthorn 1980s. Slattery Images

The most important part of any season is getting into a position to play finals, and hopefully grab that double chance. During my time at Hawthorn, we were very fortunate to play in thirteen consecutive finals series (1982-94), including seven straight Grand Finals (1983-89).

Usually a month out from September you would know that you’re going to play finals, which meant it was time to really focus on playing good footy and start organising things on the outside, too, like finals tickets for family and friends.

The club was really strong on making sure people weren’t bothering you when the finals came around, so it was all sorted five or six weeks out, which was really sensible.

As an individual, it’s actually quite easy to keep your focus leading in; your position is never guaranteed, and you don’t want to be thinking “l’ll rest myself for when it matters”, because it just doesn’t work like that.

So it’s all about preparing yourself properly and making sure that absolutely everything is right – the way you attack training, the way you look after your boots, how you go about socialising, the way you cross the road!

The whole focus is on you and your club, and taking care of the little things you would normally take for granted.

One of the biggest mistakes we made in my time was leading into the 1984 Grand Final. We’d won the second-semi final against Essendon, and in the week off we took it a bit easier. Then Essendon smashed Collingwood in the prelim, and when they came to play us, we hadn’t really maintained our training, so a lot of us ran out of legs in the last quarter of the big one.

They ran all over us, so from that moment there were no shortcuts at training. We did everything full pelt and if you got injured, you got injured.

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The Crowd Says (7) | Page 1 of Comments

Redb said | August 25th 2009 @ 7:56am | Report comment

Hey big fella good to have you at the Roar. Your a great ambassador for footy, loved your work with International Rules tours and the recent Israeli-Palestine Peace team in the International Cup.

Hated you as a Hawks player but hey I barrack for Essendon and 1984 was our finest hour.

I feel the finals excitement really building, it starts with Round 22 with 3 big clashes: Hawks v Ess , Coll v Bullies and Carl v Adel. Cant wait until we belt your blokes this Saturday .

Will Franklin’s appeal succeed?

cheers
Redb

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megatron said | August 25th 2009 @ 9:55am | Report comment

I think form isn’t like a tap that you can just turn on or off. That’s what makes me think the Dogs and Pies look the goods

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sheek said | August 25th 2009 @ 2:55pm | Report comment

The Big Dipper… the Big Unit.

Very nice insight into finals preparation.

And welcome to The Roar…..

Some thoughts.

1. Will Geelong be motivated for a big finals season, realising they missed a massive opportunity last year for back-to-back flags?

2. Will St.Kilda be able to handle the finals pressure, mostly self-generated, of finishing off a stellar season?

I’m in two minds. On the one hand, I would love to see the Saints win only their second ever premiership. On the other hand, I feel the Cats haven’t yet justified their massive collective talent, with a second premiership in 3 years.

Right now, I reckon they should share the premiership. As if!!!

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Pippinu said | August 25th 2009 @ 3:15pm | Report comment

Yeh, backing up the other guys, great to hear from you Dip.

Remember those battles on the Dougy Hawkins wings on a muddy Western Oval?

In 1985 the Hawk got away from you, and he kicked the only goal of the day into the wind at the Geelong Rd end.

It ended 5 goals a piece with the scraggers getting the win by a matter of a couple of points.

But you had the last laugh in the finals, absolutely destroying us in what was our first finals appearance in 9 years.

That was a high point in what was a tough decade for the scraggers, but at least gave Micky Malthouse a start in his coaching career.

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tifosi said | August 25th 2009 @ 8:53pm | Report comment

Dipper is the reason i followed the hawks all those many years ago!!!

I hope he can give us more details of his footy experience in the future

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Michael C said | August 28th 2009 @ 4:18pm | Report comment

AH Dipper, excellent,

for those non AFL roarers :

the Coodabeens ode to Dipper : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2QO2Y8Rnag
(and the classic to his team mate Dermie : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vgFM1sCEx4&feature=related)

btw – I’d like to reinforce Redb’s comments re Dippers ambassadorial roles on the ‘international’ stage.

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Pippinu said | August 28th 2009 @ 4:41pm | Report comment

MC
excellent selections!!

Nothing beats a good Coodabeens song.

I tell you what, that Dermie hit makes Buddie’s hit look pretty tame!!

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