West Coast forward Mark Nicoski has urged his team-mates to make the most of their opportunities as the Eagles look to give September a real shake.
Not content with simply rising from last on the ladder in 2010, Nicoski has urged the Eagles to push deep into September and ultimately aim for that first day in October.
"You don't know when your opportunities are going to come and we've got one this year," was Nicoski's message ahead of West Coast's qualifying final clash with Collingwood on Saturday.
"It doesn't matter where we've come from or how we've got there, you've got to look at it as if it's your only opportunity to win a premiership."
"So we're going to go in with that attitude over the next month and see what we can do."
Nicoski knows all about missing opportunities. As a youngster he played in the club's losing grand final side in 2005 before injury ruined his chance to experience premiership glory the following year.
Although he was ecstatic for his team-mates in 2006 as they pulled off a dramatic one-point win over Sydney, Nicoski's dominant memory of the day is being hugged by a sympathetic Chad Fletcher after the siren.
Since that time, injuries have prevented the 27-year-old from stringing too many games together until this season, but now that the work's been done to put the club in a position to aim for its fourth flag, Nicoski is determined to exploit the chance.
"We had a team dinner last Wednesday and I had a brief chat to the boys and just sort of mentioned that this sort of thing doesn't come around that often," he said.
"We've seen what's happened over the last couple of years so to now be in a position where we can give September a bit of a shake, it's pretty exciting and we're all looking forward to it."
The Eagles could take 11 finals debutants into a clash with a fired-up Collingwood, determined to atone for last Friday's dreadful 96-point capitulation to Geelong.
Although he knows the club's youngsters will be challenged, Nicoski believes the positivity they've brought to the club throughout the poor last three seasons and into 2011 will give them every chance of weathering the Collingwood storm.
"I think there's sort of a bit of a naive enthusiasm about them," said Nicoski.
"I don't think they really know what's coming and I think that's a great thing because no doubt when they're 10 minutes in and gasping for air and thinking, 'this is out of control', they won't have already played the game during the week (in their heads)."
"When we knew probably two weeks out that we were going to play Collingwood this game, I thought to myself there's no greater game to play in," he added.
"Because Luke Shuey, Jack Darling, Scott Selwood are going to get invaluable experience from this and if they want to play in premierships, they've got to be able to perform in these games."