It has been a mantra of the Geelong Football Club for an extended period of time, but the Cats commitment to development has been an influential factor in the club's success.
Take a look through Geelong's team in their most recent match and there is a common theme; most players plied their trade at VFL level first before earning a spot in the Cats AFL team.
Familiar names such as Gryan Miers, Sam De Koning and Max Holmes all spent plenty of time with the VFL Cats in their early years, as did George Stevens prior to making his AFL debut last weekend.
Zach Tuohy co-hosted 'To the Final Bell' alongside Meg McDonald this week, lifting the lid on the theory behind Geelong's strategy.
"There is a misconception about young players, for example," Tuohy said.
"Thinking that you have these young players so they need game time, it is exactly backwards. Yeah they need some exposure at some point, but they are the ones that have time.
"It is equally important that you teach them how to win, how to train well from Monday to Friday and it is very hard to do that if you just oust every player once they get to 30 or 31 years old. They are the ones with the wealth of knowledge and the ones that can actually show you how to win."
Nobody understands the notion quite like Tuohy, who had a phenomenal impact across 14 seasons in the AFL before finishing up last year at the age of 34, retiring from the game as a premiership player and the V/AFL games record holder for an Irish player.
The Irishman was heavily influential during his eight years with Geelong, particularly in his final seasons as an experienced senior leader within the group, helping to advance the development of some emerging talents at the club.
Tuohy said that while Geelong has perfected it over a long period of time, another big Melbourne club has provided a perfect example of why the development strategy is effective.
"Collingwood now, Geelong for the last 15 years, there is a reason," Tuohy said.
"Collingwood have been remarkably consistent, they have gone right down at different points but have come back really quickly and during all that, they have held on to a few senior guys.
"Yeah you want to get the young guys some exposure, but I just think clubs are finally cottoning onto the fact that they are the ones with time and it is more important they learned.
"They can miss out on 10 or 15 games across the first three or four years of their career, but be so much better for it in the long run because it means they got exposure with guys like Pendlebury, Danger or Hawkins who was here for a long time. They get to see those guys and how they operate for an extra year or two, teams are finally clicking."
Meg McDonald is preparing for her ninth AFLW season which kicks off in a little over a month, Geelong looking to return to the Finals after narrowly missing out last year.
The experienced Cat has seen the same mix of experience and youth in the Cats AFLW program, learning the importance of the balance from some of Geelong's young AFL stars.
"We had a Q&A with some of the younger guys in a meeting recently," McDonald said.
"We asked that question to Ollie Dempsey and same will have applied for George [Stevens], you do your time in the VFL and it sets you up for success, but what is that period of patience like?
"I think that is where the management of those players, your development coaches and people that run that program, the messages that they are getting fed the whole time and the philosophy have to be crystal clear.
"If they buy in, then that whole system you described functions."
