The club hasn’t featured in the finals since 2012 but Meline has full faith in his younger players handling Saturday’s qualifying final against Wagga Tigers. 

“I think they’ll be pretty good, those guys, they’ve had a lot of success in junior footy in finals,” Meline said.

“Obviously it’s a step up but I don’t think they’ll be overawed in big games – we had that run of six tight games during the year.”

The Crows played six finals contenders in consecutive weeks, winning three then losing three – beginning with a 14-point loss to Tigers when they had a 0.8 first quarter.

Meline wants to avoid another slow start and is wary of Tigers’ ability to punish mistakes.

“We were good at the clearances but we have to be careful if the ball’s turned over, with their ability to run and transition from defence to attack.”