THE PIONEERS of Friday-night footy are back there, and they couldn't be happier. The Roos take on the Pies at Telstra Dome, and coach Dean Laidley is a happy man.

"We're really looking forward to it – it's going to be a wonderful opportunity for our younger boys who did so well last week and have done so well for the majority of the year, for them to be able to step up on the big stage. We're really looking forward to it," he said.

"We look at it as an opportunity to get out there and continue to develop the younger guys that we've got, and our more senior players to perform at their optimum level – the guys that have been around for a few years always like to play well on Friday nights, as I'm sure all players in the AFL do.

"I really think you can make a name for yourself, because you probably get the whole football world watching on Friday nights."

Another plus for the Roos is that it's in Melbourne, something Laidley was equally happy about.

"If you have a look at our form in Melbourne, against any side, it's been very, very good. Very good.

"We've had some disappointing performances interstate, and we haven't been able to put our finger on the reasons for that.

"We've had two good wins interstate, albeit very close, but we have had some ups and downs – is that because we haven't had consistency in team selection, the amount of young guys playing in a hostile environment that probably haven't played there before?

(But) I'm pretty confident of our playing group, every time we've played in Melbourne, or we've played on the big stage against any opposition.

"We beat Collingwood earlier this year in a very tight game, Geelong, we played very well, we've beaten the Bulldogs, we drew with Sydney, we've beaten the Hawks.

"So our form in Melbourne's been pretty good against anyone."