SPRING is in the air, which means one thing: finals. And for the third-placed Bulldogs the excitement in the air at Whitten Oval is palpable.

Midfielder Matthew Boyd has played just a couple of finals in his 112 games, and said it was great to be involved in spring football.

"It's obviously a pretty exciting time, and only eight teams going at the moment, so it's always exciting to be playing finals", he said on Tuesday.

"It's the first time for a few of the boys, too, so yeah, it's pretty exciting."

The 25-year-old says the team is better prepared for the finals now than they were in 2006.

"I suppose we do feel a bit more ready, and we're ready to play finals footy. We've built a whole season on it … The work we did through the pre-season and the off-season was to get ourselves ready and harder and able to play that brand of footy that comes with the finals.

"We feel that we're far more ready that we were two years ago."

With fewer spots available than players wanting them, selection is always a tense issue in finals, but Boyd said it was pretty simple to deal with as a player.

"I'm not too sure about the selection, or who's in and who's out, so I just come out and train and look forward to playing.

"That's all you can do as a player – you leave the rest of them up to the physios and the coaching staff."