Geelong jet Max Holmes is adamant he won't be carrying the type of mental baggage that plagued his previous finals series into the Cats' September tilt.
Holmes will play his 100th game in Friday night's qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions at the MCG.
The 22-year-old wasn't risked for Geelong's 2022 Grand Final win after injuring his hamstring in the preliminary final, while he was substituted out of last year's preliminary final loss to the Lions with another hamstring injury.
When asked if he carried any baggage, Holmes said: "Actually, I think a little bit last year I did, and going into that game, I was a bit of a wreck.
"... I got sick before the game. I don't know how much my mental stuff going into the game affected that. It might have, I don't know.
"This year, I've been a lot more comfortable with that, and I've been pretty open moving into this game with how I felt last year.
"I feel pretty comfortable this week."
Holmes hadn't put too much work into managing his emotions ahead of Friday.
"I haven't wanted to put an over-emphasis on these games," he said.
"So there hasn't been too much work into it, because I don't want to work on it just for the finals and then panic because of all I've worked it up to be."
Holmes, who had a career-best season last year, has maintained his sensational form, averaging 26.9 disposals and 619 metres gained while kicking 11 goals.
He has met his own high expectations, and thrived with the pressure-relieving addition of boom recruit Bailey Smith.
"He's been great for my game," Holmes said.
"At the start of the year, especially considering I had a better year last year, I got a bit of a breakout year, I kind of put a lot of expectation on myself this year.
"And I think that was really eased by the fact that Bailey went well, and I felt like it was less necessary for me to play out of my boots."
Smith opened up at the AFL's awards night last week about spending time in a mental health facility last year.
Holmes recalled catching up with Smith for coffee when he was first traded to Geelong.
"He was real open about all the things he's been through through his life, and he's on a platform a lot, and he's in the spotlight a lot," he said.
"That stuff's hard, and it was really brave of him the other day to talk about that stuff.
"He's been really vocal with us, and I think that was part of him thinking that we were concerned with some of the off-field antics, which wasn't the case anyway.
"But he was really keen to speak to us about what he's been through and how he's working towards it going forward.
"He's been really good like that. We really trust him because of that and it was really great what he did."
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