FINALS experience is one of football's age-old terms and is just one of many used in the game of psychological warfare that takes place every September.

It is usually perpetuated in two very separate circumstances.

We hear it when a team that has enjoyed finals action prepares to face a team that hasn't. Any coach worth his salt uses it to plant a seed of doubt in the opposition's mind.

We also hear it when a young team fails to perform in the finals. It is easier and less confronting to find reason in a theory that is difficult to quantify, especially considering the concept is so readily accepted by the football community.

There are factors that change in finals but they are all manageable. The stakes are higher and all but two games this month will eliminate teams from the competition. Intensity is the word for September. Off the field and on it, the intensity lifts but most of it exists away from the areas players can control.

Although I concede that the atmosphere around a finals game is different to that of a regular match, the environment inside the fence on game day is basically the same.

A final is played on the same-size field, with the same ball and the same opposition you've encountered throughout the home-and-away rounds.

The biggest danger in the finals is beating yourself, and believing in "finals experience" is just one of many ways to do that.

Having been there and done that in a finals atmosphere can provide confidence and belief for a similar situation down the track, but finals can also leave scars and trauma. It all depends on your perspective and the attitude you carry, not whether you've been there before.

My case in point occurred during the 2002 season when Collingwood qualified for the finals for the first time in eight years. We had finished fourth after stumbling through the final few rounds of home-and-away games and the consensus was that our young team would be found out in the intensity of finals. Only eight listed players had played a final and my one experience was in 1994.

Our opponent in the first week was a Port Adelaide team that had finished top for the second consecutive season but one that had had its knocks, too. Even with recent finals experience, Port had gone out in straight sets in 2001 and there were strong suggestions of the same happening again.

I was to miss that game while still recovering from a hamstring injury and in my support role for the team I noticed two figures stand tall in the week leading into that match and, indeed, for the rest of our finals charge.

One was coach Mick Malthouse and the other was Glenn Freeborn.

Against Port, we had just 25 games of finals experience among five players. Half of those games came from Freebs' North Melbourne days.

For most of the year he went about his business in an unassuming manner; measured and focused. But when we got to September, he realised that his contribution to our preparation was pivotal. He became every player's sounding board and led brilliantly.

His message to us was not to spend time dreaming about kicking the winning goal or taking a hanger in the goal square but to imagine laying a block for a teammate or going back with the flight. It would be the focus on team that would win games.

The coach had seen it all before and guided his team through the week focusing entirely on what we could influence and ignoring all that we could not. Furthermore, the game plan that Mick had tutored the team towards was suited to the contested, physical nature of finals. We didn't have to find anything special, the finals style was made for us.

After beating Port, we got past Adelaide at the MCG and fell short against Brisbane in the grand final. The figures show the Lions all enjoyed more finals experience than we did but it was not a factor in the results.

Although we had an inexperienced list in terms of finals exposure, we enjoyed solid leadership from those that had finals experience.

It is the quality of leadership that will dictate the ability of this year's combatants to survive and thrive in a finals environment.

The most common downfall of players in finals is trying to do something special, something different, when all that is required is to play your team role.

The best teams win finals games whether they have been there before or not. And that team will get the only "finals experience" that really matters. Winning the flag.