'Rehearsal' sets up Roos

KANGAROOS Veteran Shannon Grant believes a shortage of recent finals experience at the club has been countered by a virtual dress-rehearsal late in the AFL home-and-away season. The Roos' only finals match in the past four seasons was an elimination final thrashing at the hands of Port Adelaide in 2005. Grant is one of four remaining Kangaroos who played in the club's 1999 premiership, along with Glenn Archer, Adam Simpson and Brent Harvey. Apart from those veterans, none of the players who will line up against Geelong tomorrow have more than two finals matches to their name. But Grant believes a series of matches from rounds 18-20, when the club came up against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, West Coast and then Geelong, gave the rest of the players a good sense of what a finals series is like. "I think we stand ourselves in pretty good stead, the last five or six weeks of the season we played in finals-like games," Grant said. "You look at the Geelong game, the West Coast game, even the Brisbane game up at the Gabba. That probably gives us a really good base. I think from those games, the younger guys certainly will know what to expect come Sunday afternoon." The downside is that the Roos lost all three of those matches, including going down to the Cats by 27 points in round 20. But Grant believes it will be a better team for that experience. "I don't think we were too far away in either of those games," Grant said. "We certainly got a lot out of it, the West Coast game and the Geelong game."

Davis jnr takes over

SYDNEY Anyone wanting advice on football from a Davis now has to dial the son, not the father. In his 164th game last weekend, Nick Davis eclipsed the games tally of his father, Craig, who played 163 senior games with Carlton, North Melbourne, Collingwood and then Sydney. "It was special being able to break Dad's games record on Father's Day," Nick said. "I'm now the senior Davis in the family and if anyone wants to know something about football, they have to ring and ask me because he's second in line. Dad's been great throughout my career. The proudest day of his life was the grand final in 2005." Between them, though, the Davises have played in seven grand finals for that one win. Davis' mother, Judy, also should take some credit. "As long as I'm happy, then my footy goes well. Mum has always tried to make sure things run smoothly off the field, and she's done a great job," Nick said.
MICHAEL COWLEY

Carrazzo the Blues' best

CARLTON Andrew Carrazzo has capped a stellar year by winning the John Nicholls Medal for Carlton's best and fairest player. Carrazzo polled 218 votes last night, six clear of runner-up Heath Scotland, to win the award in his fourth year at the club. In the absence of midfielder and vice-captain Nick Stevens, who missed most of the season after surgery on his neck, Carrazzo seized his opportunity in the middle of the ground. Five-time best and fairest winner, John Nicholls, presented Carrazzo with the medal in front of 800 guests at Crown. Carrazzo, 23, spent two years on Geelong's rookie list before making his debut for Carlton in 2004. He played 20 games in 2005, 19 games in 2006 and every game this year, finishing 2007 as the Blues' second-highest possession winner behind Scotland. Jarrad Waite polled 144 votes to finish third followed by Ryan Houlihan (142) and Kade Simpson (126). Bryce Gibbs came ninth (74 votes) and won the club's best first-year player award. Jordan Bannister was named best clubman and Paul Bower received the past players encouragement award.

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