Lisa Steane is adamant a knee issue will not stop her taking the field when the Sydney Swans make their first ever AFLW finals appearance on Saturday night.
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The Nelson Bay product is one of the Swans' most-experienced players but hurt her left knee in a crucial final-round win over Fremantle last Sunday.
The victory ensured Sydney finished eighth by percentages in their second campaign and lined up an elimination final showdown with the fifth-placed Suns on the Gold Coast.
"It happened in the first six or seven minutes and I came straight off, got assessed and they said to me there's no ligament damage and if I can deal with the pain I can go back on," Steane told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday.
"So we strapped it up and I played out the rest of the game, which was great.
"It's all good. They sent me for scans and it's nothing major. It's not great but it's nothing that's going to stop me from playing.
"I've just got to get through training tonight then get selected."
The 28-year-old won championships with Nelson Bay and Macquarie University, proving pivotal to both, before being drafted to GWS in 2019.
Steane's only finals experience in AFLW was with the Giants in 2020. That game was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It was the first elimination final, we were playing against Melbourne and we were winning and then in the last few minutes they kicked a goal and won," Steane recalled.
"So I've played one finals before, which is good to have that experience I guess, but it feels different.
"That was such a long time ago and it was so early in my career, so I was definitely nervous and felt the pressure of the final a lot more than I'm feeling now."
The Swans have been playing do-or-die football already for the past few weeks and take plenty of confidence into Saturday's clash after finishing the regular season with three consecutive wins under pressure.
"It's definitely prepared us," Steane said.
"I also think it just allows us to actually live the motto of nothing changes. Everybody says nothing changes but, for some teams when they already know they're in finals and they haven't had that pressure and then suddenly it's an elimination final, there's that added pressure.
"For us, we've had that pressure for the last two weeks, which is good."
After losing every game of their maiden AFLW campaign last year, the Swans recorded six wins from 10 outings in their second.
There was plenty of raw emotions after their finals fate was sealed.
"I can't really put it into words - half of the girls crying, or just running and jumping and getting around each other because we've all been there through the hardship and we have been through the absolute grind of the last season," she said.
"In the off-season we all made a pact that if we want to get better we need to all commit to being better. We pretty much started training as a group unofficially, just the girls, from January ... It just feels like an acknowledgement of effort.
"It feels great because you come into the season thinking, 'OK, we hope for at least a win this season', but deep down we all knew that we could get more than a win. We just didn't want to say it, we just wanted to let our footy do the talking.
"It's definitely put us in a position of resilience and really prepped up for a tough game. We'll put in effort all the way to the end because we are very resilient, so hopefully that will pay off."
The Swans and Gold Coast did not meet during the regular season but had two exchanges in pre-season.
"They're very good at the contest and have a very contested style of play, so it's going to be tough," Steane said.
"But I think if we can weather it, we have a really good chance of getting the win ... I think in the last few rounds we've proven that we can win different ways."
The medium defender, who wears her Nelson Bay Marlins number of 21 for the Swans, has made 37 AFLW appearances since debuting in 2020 and has not missed a game this season.
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