Jake Smith had three good reasons to be nervous coming into last weekend's preliminary final clash with Lauderdale.
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The Southern Bombers had ended Launceston's finals campaign in each of 2017, 2018 and 2019 - twice in a preliminary final and once in a semi - before going on to reach grand finals.
But a breakthrough eight-goal win has seen Smith reach his first senior grand final against the best team of the past decade.
"I've been around long enough done it enough to know that getting nervous doesn't help my performance," the 25-year-old said.
"You always have a little bit of nervousness - you're excited, there's a little bit of anxiety about 'am I going to play well, is the team going to play well', but once that ball goes up you're fine.
"It'll be hot - it's against the arch-nemesis across the river, it's going to be hard-fought. Both teams are well-drilled, well-coached and plenty of talent - the most talented teams in the state.
"It's going to be high-level football but I guess you have to wait until the day - that's the beautiful thing about football, you don't know until the day."
Arriving at Launceston in 2011 - the club's most recent premiership year - Smith is the most experienced member of the Blues' back line.
He described a five-year period which has seen him go from helping coach Jacob Boyd in the under-15s to playing alongside him in the back six as "a rollercoaster".
"You come into a club that's successful - and I've always had success through juniors and everything, I've never really been in a bad football team - you come in and they win the flag first year and you're like 'oh so this is easy, this is what it's going to be every year, I've just to got to get my spot'," he said.
"Then you have a few bad years and you have some bad cultures ... and I think that's the biggest thing about this group is we're really tight-knit, we get on really well and catch up outside of football.
"So the culture as a whole is exciting to be around and it was something they had the last time we won a premiership - a really close-knit group, expectations and pushing each other to be the best they possibly can."
Saturday's grand final starts at 2.30pm at UTAS Stadium.
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Hamish Geale
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
