He’s the only Demon to have won an AFL premiership but Jordan Lewis doesn’t believe Melbourne will be disadvantaged by their lack of finals experience.
Lewis bagged four premierships with Hawthorn before joining the Demons last season, while just three other players – Nathan Jones, Michael Hibberd and Jake Melksham – have had any September action.
Before their elimination final against Geelong on Friday night at the MCG, Lewis believes his team will handle the pressure of finals football.
He says the manner in which they trumped fellow finalists West Coast and GWS leading into the finals has boosted his belief.
Lewis won his first grand final with the Hawks in 2008, when they had a similarly raw playing group.
“The only similarity I can draw on is the similarity of the playing group and that didn’t hold us back in 2008 and I don’t see why it should hold us back this time,” said the 32-year-old, who’s recovered after being laid low with the flu during the pre-finals break.
“We went into the break with some really good form and we’ve played Geelong twice this year and while we’ve come up short, we’ve learnt along the way.
“I think experience is good in finals but I don’t think it’s a necessity.”
He didn’t feel the Demons would be overawed going up against the likes of superstar Cats Gary Ablett, Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood.
“From the outside looking in you could potentially think that but they’re just players – they’re really good but we’ve got some really good players here as well,” the 300-gamer said.
Lewis said if his younger teammates sought him out for advice, he would tell them to try to treat their preparation for the match like any other.
“The things that are inside the club don’t really change so my message is don’t search for stuff that’s not there and just go about your week as you normally would,” he said.
“When you get to the game there’s a different feel – there’s big crowds and more intensity within the game but other than that it’s just a normal week.”
Lewis said that while champions Richmond would go into the finals as title favourites, he didn’t feel they were infallible.
“The ladder suggests Richmond were clear favourites but in their last two games they didn’t blow teams out of the water,” he said.
