Leeton-Whitton's Cooper Sharman excited for St Kilda's AFL finals campaign

Sharman is excited by the thought of running out onto the MCG on Saturday when the Saints take on Greater Western Sydney in the first week of the AFL finals.

It will be the Saints' first finals campaign since 2020, the same time as Sharman was playing a leading role in Leeton-Whitton's run to a grand final appearance in the AFL Riverina Championship.

Now in his third season as a Saint, Sharman overcame an uncertain start to the year to play the last 13 games in St Kilda's AFL team.

Now staring down his first AFL final, Sharman hopes he gets the nod for a 14^th consecutive game.

"Hopefully I get picked, hopefully Ross (Lyon) gives me a chance to play," Sharman said.

"It's really exciting, September footy.

"The last couple of years we've been pretty close. Probably one or two wins away, if we had of knocked off a team earlier in the year we would have been in, so we've been thereabouts the last couple of years so it's nice to get in and hopefully we can do some damage."

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After playing 15 AFL games for St Kilda since his arrival in the AFL mid-season draft in 2021, Lyon's return to the coaching position at the Saints this year meant Sharman had to prove himself all over again.

"Ross really made me earn my spot in the team," Sharman said.

"I was the sub for a couple of pre-season games so I never got to play a game, which probably hurt my chances of starting in the team in round one so I was probably on the back foot a little bit to begin with.

"Ross made me go back to the VFL and play some good footy, he wanted me to play a bit on the wing to see how I'd go there and add another string to my bow I suppose.

"I think it was round eight when I played my first AFL game, I think I've only missed one game since then. I had a five-game stint as sub in there from round 11 to round 15-16 or something like that, which gets a little bit frustrating that you're not playing a full game but I suppose it was my foot in the door to getting into the team, which was playing some really good footy so obviously there wasn't going to be many changes to the team.

"I was able to have an impact in those games I was able to get on, whether that was a forward, defender or even on a wing, I think I played all three lines during that five-game stint and I suppose it gave the coaches and my teammates enough confidence that I can go out there and play my role.

"It held me in good stead for the final few games where I did play the whole game."

Sharman admits to having some doubts early in the year.

"It was a little bit frustrating at the start of the year because I finished off last year in the team so I'd set myself up for a good pre-season," he said.

"I was able to get stronger, improve my running a lot and it came to round one and we were pretty injured riddled, I think we had six AFL players playing in our VFL team, that's how injury riddled we were so I was thinking if I can't get a game at the moment then how am I going to get a game, we're scraping the barrel really.

"We went to Southport for a VFL game and there were six St Kilda players, we got absolutely smoked and I thought, this is not ideal.

"I suppose I had to work for my spot, which is really good and that's how it worked out."

Sharman has kicked 10 goals from his last eight games and played some important roles for the Saints in their run into finals.

He believes they have the game that will stand up in finals and has backed the Saints' to do some damage.

"We're absolutely confident that we can do some damage. We've played some really good footy against some top sides this year and know that our best footy is good enough and holds us in good stead," he said.

"We have been written off all year, it's been a bit of a weird one, we've got a home final against GWS and we're still not favourites. It's been a bit of a weird one, no one's backed us in all year but we've been reasonably consistent, I think we're one of the only teams to stay in the top eight the whole year.

"I think finals footy you need to bring your pressure and your defensive system, that's where it's won. The Giants are a really fast-running team, they love to handball the ball around so if we can really force them to make turnovers and beat them on the way back, that will be the key to winning the game, I think."

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