It’s NRL finals time, and we find ourselves in the position where two of the top four teams have been winning, but aren’t in great form.
The Raiders are the only ones in the top four really doing the business at the moment, though the Cowboys have definitely improved over the past couple of months.
Melbourne have been winning – but certainly not in impressive fashion – while Cronulla have struggled.
If you ask me who’s going to win the Premiership, I am still sticking with my prediction from about six weeks ago. I think the Cowboys can take it home again.
Unless you’ve been there before, you don’t know what a player or team can produce. With Canberra, there’s a little bit of the unknown about them that won’t be revealed until the game. We’ll know a lot more about the Raiders after this weekend.
But the Storm, Cowboys and Broncos can all win it. They’ve all shown they can do it before, and have experience in those big games. The Dogs are another side who have shown the same temperament. They know how to play finals footy. But they come into September in pretty poor form.
That’s why the pick of the weekend’s games is the Cowboys versus Storm. That game, the very nature of it, is intriguing. Both teams are primed for finals footy and have big game experience and players.
I also like the Panthers-Dogs game due its battle of contrasts, not just for family reasons.
The Dogs have plenty of experience, with plenty of their roster having played in grand finals before. Des Hasler has been there and won it. They’re not in great form, but you can expect a better performance with Sam Kasiano back this week.
And remember what happened two years ago, where they made the grand final despite being in poor form, even right up to the semi-finals.
Penrith are in good form, play differently to other sides and have plenty of enthusiasm and youth. While some might say that inexperience could cost them, I’ll stick with the Panthers.
A day game suits them. They have a style that can look messy, but they’re playing with a lot of rhythm. No doubt the Dogs will want to disrupt that rhythm and find their own in the process.
That’s the pressure of finals.
People talk about finals being ‘different’. From a coach’s perspective, everything in the game moves faster. The opening 20 minutes will likely be faster than anything in the last part of the season. There’s more energy. There’s more adrenaline.
What was normal throughout the season will be stepped up, and everyone will be breathing a bit harder.
That’s why experience is important. Guys who’ve been there before can process what they need to do in the heat of battle.
Time under pressure and fatigue can last much longer in finals than other games due to the pace of the game.
It’s important to be accurate at the start of the game. Everyone needs to get themselves into the contest, and that’s where the challenge lies. It’s also what makes great players and great finals players.
Everyone’s going to be nervous, it’s about how well you handle it. There’s a danger with younger players that they get a bit excited. They might start doing things based on the occasion rather than what’s in front of them. Pushing a pass, giving away a penalty, it’s all a sign of what finals can do to a team.
To mitigate that sort of stuff, preparation is key. You can’t stop players being nervous, and you can’t put them in a bubble. Everywhere they go, everyone will be talking about the game.
The best thing you can do is make their preparation as normal as possible.
I like to do this because the game itself is more than enough to get you excited.
If a player is distracted or not quite themselves, it’s relatively easy to notice it early on during the week. Simple things like tickets for family members can prove to be distractions.
You don’t want them to think that it’s not normal.
What brought you to the finals, generally speaking, will bring you success in the finals if you do it a little bit better.
Of course, that all depends on how you’re travelling when you get in there, but the worst thing you can do is introduce uncertainty.
There are two guys I played with that I can think of specifically who were great at preparing for finals games: Freddie Fittler and Stacey Jones.
You just knew from training they were going to have a great game. They showed great leadership. I’m not sure if everyone in the team picked it up, but I certainly did.
Precisely what they did is hard to articulate, it was more just more a feeling and intensity about their work that week.
Players who play with guys like Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston will all no doubt have experienced the same thing at training this week.
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