For the first four years of Steele Sidebottom’s AFL career, playing finals is just what he did.

Arriving at the Club via the National Draft in 2008 – a time when the Pies were just getting ready to rise – Sidebottom had played in a remarkable 14 finals by the end of 2012.

And admittedly, as he explained to AFLW Senior Coach and former North Melbourne defender Sam Wright on Common Thread, he was naïve in his thinking that they would just keep coming.

“My first year we played in a prelim – we got pumped – second year two Grand Finals – win one – third year lose a Grand Final,” Sidebottom said on the Club’s new podcast.

“I think 2012 then we might’ve made a prelim, so for me it was just like ‘this is just normal, this is what happens, we play finals’.

“I probably did take it for granted a little bit.”

He did have to work hard to gain himself the opportunity though, having not been in the side on the eve of the 2009 finals series.

However, after finishing that year’s VFL season in blistering form, Sidebottom earnt himself a spot in the Qualifying Final team that would take on St. Kilda - and from there he never looked back.

“I was drafted in the end of ’08 and first year, 2009, I think I ended up playing 12 games,” he said.

“I played in like Round 7 and got dropped at Round 14 and basically didn’t play again until the finals.

“Your old coach Brad Scott was our midfield coach at the time … I got dropped and I remember getting that phone call from Scotty.

“He basically said ‘we’re not going to play you this week, you’ve got to go back to VFL and basically earn your spot to get back in’.

“He said ‘you’ve just got to start dominating the VFL because we’ve got a strong team at the moment and it’s hard to get in’.

“Lucky enough I finished the back end of the VFL off pretty strong and then got picked for the first final against the Saints.”

That stretch between 2009-12 yielded three Grand Finals where Sidebottom uniquely experienced all three outcomes, as he rode the ultimate rollercoaster in his initial years as an AFL footballer.

But had it not been for an Elimination Final in 2013, Sidebottom wouldn’t have experienced September action at all for five years before the Pies found their way back into the decider in 2018.

It was that lean patch, which coincided with some of Sidebottom’s best individual seasons across a glittering career, which made him understand the work required to reach the biggest stage more often than not.

“To not play finals for probably four years, you’d know, when you’re sitting on the couch watching everyone else play when you want to play, you start to question are you doing enough,” he said.

“When we made the final in ’18, I just tried to make sure that I really took everything in.

“I remember the parade, everything throughout the finals, training sessions, so many fans there, I remember really trying to make sure I took it all in.

“They just don’t come around all that often.”

And while he’s searching to add a third premiership medallion to his collection in 2025, there’s a clear distinction he can make between how he views his 2010 and 2023 triumphs.

“I think it was maybe a blessing to learn that it doesn’t come all the time and if you compare the two (premierships) from 2010 to ’23, they’re both unreal for sure, but 2023 I had to probably work a little bit harder and was a little bit more mature and wiser,” he said.

“I think I’ll hold that one a little bit closer to my heart for sure because we definitely had to work a little bit harder and we didn’t just turn up and it was all there for me.”