Melbourne five-eighth Brett Finch says that his team's preparation for Saturday night's preliminary final against Brisbane has been ideal and there will be 'no excuses' if the hosts go down at Etihad Stadium.
While they were put through an 80-minute match simulation against the club's Under-20 team on Saturday afternoon, the Storm players then had the luxury of putting their feet up that night as they watched the Broncos-Dragons semi-final.
And while Finch is still relatively new to the Victorian club having moved south from Parramatta in April he has noticed the intensity picking up with each day and is confident Melbourne is ready to chase its fourth-straight grand final appearance.
"They know what works for them and we've put ourselves in another great position and it's another great opportunity for this year," Finch said on Thursday morning.
"Everything's right on track for us and there will be no excuses on Saturday night."
"The intensity has picked up (and) the closer we get to the game the more nervous and the bigger the build-up."
"(Coach) Craig (Bellamy) knows what makes these guys tick, he's been the only coach for the majority of these guys their whole career."
"He knows what buttons to push to get the boys ready and I think our preparation is right on track."
Much has been made of the absence of Broncos half-back Peter Wallace with a broken ankle and while Finch concedes it's undoubtedly a 'big blow' he isn't expecting it to make life any easier for his team.
"We're expecting a tough game no matter who they put there (at half-back)," he added.
"The bloke outside, Darren Lockyer, he's a pretty handy player and you add to that Karmichael Hunt, Justin Hodges (and) Israel Folau, there's a stack of class there who have played in the big games before so we won't be falling into that trap (of taking the Broncos lightly without Wallace)."
"The Broncos are a really unpredictable team, they like to throw a lot of footy at you and with the attacking ability that they have in their team … it's going to be extremely tough and we know our defence has to be right on top of its game to control some of the best attacking players in the game."
"Darren will have to probably take a bit more responsibility there but that won't be anything different for him, he's the Australian captain, a champion of our game, so he'll be ready for that."