Jack Scrimshaw can barely contain his excitement as Hawthorn prepares for Friday night's preliminary final against Geelong at the MCG.
The defender, who has been instrumental in the Hawks' remarkable finals campaign, reflects on the journey that has brought the club from the depths of 16th position 24 months ago to the brink of a grand final appearance.
"It was pretty special. It was a pretty special feeling.
“A lot of guys are sort of pinching themselves that we're into a prelim, but we took probably about 24 to 48 hours to enjoy that, and now we're purely focused on the main goal, that's to win a premiership," Scrimshaw said, when asked about the atmosphere following their victory over Adelaide.
"We've got the Cats this weekend, which is going to be a massive game, obviously, a massive rivalry, so we're really looking forward to it."
The significance of facing Geelong in a preliminary final is not lost on Scrimshaw, who grew up as a Hawthorn supporter and witnessed the 2013 preliminary final victory over the Cats.
The Hawks' path to the preliminary final has been particularly impressive given their poor interstate record during the home-and-away season.
Scrimshaw credits the team's ability to stick to their game plan regardless of location.
"We've obviously mentioned that our interstate games haven't been the greatest this year.
“We sort of made sure that we were going up there and we were just continuing to play the way that we wanted to play no matter where we are.
“It was just a matter of making sure we're bringing our weapons as every individual is bringing their weapons and what they're good at."
The passionate support from Hawthorn fans has not gone unnoticed by the playing group.
"The good thing about the last two weeks is that the Hawthorn fans have travelled and they've been there and they've been loud for us, which is massive.
“Any support we get from our Hawks fans is just massive.
“We really feed off it, so it's been a good couple of weeks," Scrimshaw noted, with Friday night's match already declared a sellout.
Individually, Scrimshaw has been a standout performer in the finals series, taking on some of the competition's premier forwards, including Riley Thilthorpe, Darcy Fogarty, Taylor Walker, Aaron Cadman, and Jesse Hogan.
He attributes his form to a season-long focus on peaking at the right time.
"The whole year's obviously been a bit of an up and down year for me.
“A bit of inconsistency and stuff with injury and form and things, but my whole goal and my whole purpose was to get myself ready for this time of the year.
“I think that I had a lot of confidence based off my final series last year, that I can be able to impact games."
The emergence of players like Sam Butler during the finals series has been particularly pleasing for Scrimshaw, who praised his teammate's resilience after overcoming significant injury setbacks.
"It's unbelievable and it's a credit to him.
“He's so diligent and such a hard worker with his rehab that he obviously sustained with his broken leg.
"He does everything he can. He's such a professional, and he deserves exactly what we saw on Friday night," Scrimshaw said.
"He's just a workhorse, he will just do anything for the side.
“That's what us as players, we love playing with guys like that who are just willing to put their body on the line for the team."
The transformation from wooden spoon contenders to preliminary finalists has been remarkable, with Scrimshaw crediting coach Sam Mitchell and the recruiting team for building the foundation.
"I think, you know, it's heavily led by Sam and our recruiting team.
“I believe that just the players that we've been able to get in and our draft picks, I think that we had a few good ones with Weds and Nick Watson," he explained.
"I think that last year before round five, we probably struggled a little bit to know how to win and, sort of, in a way, forgot how to win.
“To be able to get confidence out of that year last year with believing that we can win and that we're good enough, it was massive for us."
While the mood around the club is overwhelmingly positive, there's sadness and heartache for retiring veteran Luke Breust, who suffered an horrific ACL injury on the weekend in the preliminary final loss for Box Hill in the VFL.
"He hasn't been at the club as of yet, but we're going to obviously wrap our arms around Punky," Scrimshaw said.
"He's absolutely adored by the playing group. Everyone speaks so highly of him, he's such a great character and I'm sure that we'll be leaning on him due to his previous finals experience and he'll be like another coach for us."
Similarly, Will Day's absence from a second consecutive finals series has been felt, but Scrimshaw is full of praise for his teammate's leadership from the sidelines.
"It's a credit to him he's such a good leader around the club and such a good human.
“It's tough, obviously he could have chosen to throw the dummy out of the cot and just been super flat with his situation but he's really leaning to coaching and he's on the bench game days and he's coaching the mids and helping out David Hale."
The experience of veterans like Tom Barrass and Jack Gunston will be crucial in managing the pressure of the preliminary final atmosphere.
"There's a lot of guys in the room including coaches and things that have been to prelims and been to grand finals.
“So there's so many people that we can talk to and chat to just about their sort of experiences and what's important and how best to prepare," Scrimshaw noted.
Looking ahead to Friday night's clash with their arch-rivals, Scrimshaw's message is clear.
"We'll just be bringing everything that we've got, I'd imagine.
“These are the games that we want to play in, and nothing better than a Friday night at the MCG in front of 99, maybe 100,000 people against our arch rivals.
“You'd be pretty mad not to give it your all on Friday night for what could be an exciting couple of weeks."
One win separates Hawthorn from their first grand final in nearly a decade, and Scrimshaw and his Hawk teammates are ready to give everything at a packed MCG on Friday night for their shot at the big dance.
