The Lions enjoyed the final round bye last weekend and were able to freshen up ahead of the sudden death final against Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes at Robertson Oval.

GGGM have a reasonably settled side heading into finals with Matt Knagge the only player that has to prove his fitness as he looks to return from a hamstring injury.

Macri believes the final round bye has benefited his team.

"It certainly did, yeah. We played eight games straight and sometimes the bye comes at the right time. Sometimes you don't want it but it's been beneficial for a lot of our guys really," Macri said.

"Just those niggles and sore spots and in the position we're in, we've just got to keep winning in finals, we're not going to get a break at any stage, providing we keep winning that is, so it was a good chance to freshen up."

The Lions were one of the stories of last year's finals series, coming from eighth in 2017 to within three goals of a grand final berth.

Macri has not talked about last year's efforts with his team but is confident that experience has them well-placed to attack this year's series from fourth-place.

"I haven't touched on it too much, it's more the fact now they know what it's about, the unknown, of what its like to play in finals, is taken away," he said.

"So when you're talking about the intensity stepping up and things around that with what's required, they understand, it's not just me selling them a story, they know what its about now.

"They're talking about that, they know themselves so that's not something you have to go too far into.

"It's more so around you can play well for a fair bit of the game but still get beaten and that's what happened to us in the two games we lost last year. And even the game we won, we hadn't played well, certainly in that third quarter, but got ourselves back into it. We were able to hang in. So there's lots of lessons from it."

Both GGGM and MCUE have enjoyed big wins over each other at home this year. Macri knows the Lions will have to lift from their latest effort against the Goannas.

"Certainly the first time we beat them, they're a far better side now than they were then. It's hard to take anything out of that," Macri said.

"We only played them a month ago and they really did touch us up. We were poor that day, they were very good. But you go to a new game, a new final, it's a whole new approach.

"I expect it to be a really tight game, one of those ones that could go either way, we've just got to bring our best footy and have that intensity that we know we have. When we have that, we go close to winning and win more often than not but it's certainly not going to be easy. It's exciting."

READ MORE