It's a much more relaxed Brisbane line-up preparing for the NAB AFL Women's Grand Final compared to last year.
The Lions lost last year's Grand Final to Adelaide by six points at Metricon Stadium, after the Gabba was unavailable.
Despite the Lions qualifying for last year’s Grand Final a week before the final home and away round, the decision to play at Metricon on the Gold Coast was not finalised until the Monday before the match.
Coach Craig Starcevich – speaking alongside captain Emma Zielke and Bulldogs counterparts Paul Groves and Ellie Blackburn – said the Lions had learnt to ignore the outside noise this year.
"All the peripheral stuff doesn't really matter when you get the ball in your hands and start playing the game. We just we got caught up in the whole Gabba thing a bit [last year]. Even though we denied it, it was there," Starcevich said.
"Having had one rehearsal with it last year, if you like, we're probably better placed this year to be dealing with – not so much preparing the team – but all the other stuff buzzing around the edges about getting family and friends organised, all that sort of thing.
"We've had a run at that last year, and to pick up where you went wrong is helpful and lets you concentrate on what you need to, which is playing a game of footy."
Zielke agreed with her coach, saying the players have been calmer and more relaxed at training this week.
"We're embracing the week. Last year the pressure was on us and the drama about the Gabba was in the back of our minds, but this year, we've soaked it up," Zielke said.
"We've really enjoyed this week. We've had two really good sessions on the track, and I've heard the girls are up and about at the airport this morning [having left on a later flight]."
Starcevich then cut across his captain.
"They're always up and about," he said with a grin.
In contrast to the Bulldogs, who have been locked in a battle to overturn captain Katie Brennan's two-match suspension, the Lions have had few selection dramas, going into the Grand Final unchanged after last Friday accounting for Greater Western Sydney by 40 points.
"We've only used 24 players this year, and that's a couple of years in a row our medical and conditioning staff have done a super job to keep everyone relatively fit," Starcevich said.
"It’s actually nice we haven't had to make changes all over the place.
"We're still quite a young list. We drafted
Grand finals are not a foreign affair for Starcevich, who was a premiership player with Collingwood in 1990 and worked in high-performance with the Brisbane Lions during their premiership era from 2001-03.
"I was thinking about it this week. They're all different, they're all nerve-racking and they all have their own little intricacies. Every one of them
