The footy finals are here and that means the stakes get much higher as the eight remaining teams set their eyes on a run to the 2025 flag.
It also means coaches can employ the odd sneaky mind game as they try to throw off the opposition or gain even the slightest edge.
Matthew Nicks, who is in his sixth season as coach of the Crows, is finally about to lead his side into its first final in Thursday night's qualifying final against Collingwood.
Nicks has confirmed Max Michalanney and Luke Pedlar will return from hamstring injuries against the Pies, but those watching training noted defender Michalanney doing some work with the forwards group.
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Nicks was asked about it by reporters and quickly demonstrated he's not against playing ducks and drakes ahead of the huge game at Adelaide Oval.
"We might have done that deliberately to take you guys off track," he said. "I guess you'll find that out, but we know Max can play multiple roles.
"It's one of the things we looked at this year, becoming a more flexible team, players becoming more flexible individually to play different roles that we might need at different times.
"So if he's needed to go forward of the ball at any stage, we're confident he can do a great job.
"And we understand what he's done there for a longer period of time behind the ball."
While the Crows haven't tasted September action since way back in 2017, when they lost the grand final to Richmond, Nicks still believes his team is well-placed for finals football.
"We understand emotion amps up, pressure amps up, in finals footy," he said. "That's what we've got to be able to deal with and we have been working to deal with that all year.
"Our stadium packs out, so it won't be necessarily a new environment, although there'll be a lot more Collingwood supporters than were there the last game.
"That's the challenging part, we don't know because we don't have experience on that stage yet, at least not to the level of our opponents.
"But this is what we've done all our preparation for, is to be in this moment."