WEST Coast's current midfield stars will stack up against the golden generation of Chris Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr if they lead the Eagles to a fairytale flag on Saturday.
That's the belief of 2006 Norm Smith medallist Andrew Embley, whose 250-game career bridged the gap between the Eagles' last era of champion onballers to the current batch leading the club's resurgence.
Before this season, West Coast's midfield was ranked among the competition's "worst" by some pundits, as Matt Priddis wryly observed before the preliminary final.
But that underrated group has proved the doubters wrong – none more so than All Australian wingman Andrew Gaff and Luke Shuey.
Grand Final preview: Hawthorn v West Coast
"A couple of years ago, everyone was saying the Achilles heel of the West Coast Eagles was their midfield. Now when you look at that midfield, it's probably one of their strengths," Embley told AFL.com.au.
"They've got real depth that can go through there. OK, they might not have a name of a Judd, Cousins and Kerr, but did they have that massive name before they won a premiership?
"They might of, but you've got Matty Priddis, who's a Brownlow medallist in there now, you've got Gaff and Shuey, who in my opinion have become A-grade midfielders. The only thing really missing is a premiership.
"If they have that premiership, I think then people will almost be comparing them to some of the guys that were running through our midfield back in 2006."
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Embley, who retired in 2013, was one of the senior Eagles who mentored Gaff, Shuey and Chris Masten after they were taken with first-round draft picks.
Gaff was the fourth pick in 2010, Shuey was snared with pick 18 in '08 and Masten was third overall in the '07 draft – a pick secured as part of Judd's trade to Carlton.
Andrew Embley (middle) and Chris Masten (right) celebrate. Picture: AFL Media
"I've rated this midfield for a while, because I've known what sort of character these guys are made up of and also what kind of workrate they've got," Embley said.
"Guys like Shuey, Gaff and Masten, when they came into the football club, you just knew straight away that they were going to be good players. But it was going to take time. These guys weren't going to be stars overnight.
"So I think with every game that they've played and every year they've got behind them now, they've got that belief and confidence that they actually belong out there now – and you can see that with the way that they play."
After averaging 30 disposals during the home-and-away rounds, Gaff worked his way through a hard Sam Gibson tag in the preliminary final and finished with 20 hard-fought touches.
The bulked-up 23-year-old has evolved from a skilled wingman to a player capable of winning his own ball and drifting forward, skills he's developed under coach Adam Simpson and midfield mentor Brady Rawlings.
"They've been great. I've said it before, Brady with his role as a midfielder back when he was playing (for North Melbourne) was a more defensive midfielder … he's given me, Luke and Matt a lot of advice about all that," Gaff told AFL.com.au this week.
"We still know we're going to have good games and bad games. We can't play well every week. We all know that but we feel now that the midfield group bats pretty deep.
"We've got a lot of guys that stood up early on the weekend when other guys were down. We feel it's a sign of maturity of how far we've come. But we definitely wouldn't have been able to do that without Adam and Brady's guidance."
By sharing the workload, the Eagles' midfield drove the club's rise up the ladder from ninth last year to second in 2015.
Mark LeCras has evolved from a stay-at-home small forward, Matt Rosa has been ever-reliable, Dom Sheed ran third in the NAB AFL Rising Star award and Elliot Yeo is this season's surprise packet.
Such is the new-found depth that hardnut Mark Hutchings is set to keep former club champion Scott Selwood out of the Grand Final side.
That's not to mention superstar ruckman Nic Naitanui and hard-working sidekick Callum Sinclair, who have provided silver service to their onballers.
"No one picked us for top eight - they said we were the worst midfield too. We've got a lot of belief in our own ability and as a group we compliment each other really well," Priddis said.
"We've got guys who can go inside and out and we've got a lot of rotations going through the midfield, so I think that's really helped us as well.
"We work hard for each other and Nic and Cal are obviously fantastic for us."
Despite putting the brakes on the high-scoring Hawks in a 32-point qualifying final victory three weeks ago, with Naitanui wielding a major influence, the inexperienced Eagles enter the Grand Final as underdogs.
Last time they met: Hawthorn v West Coast
West Coast has only ventured to the MCG once this season – a 20-point win over Richmond in round 12 – and Simpson's defensive masterplan, the 'Weagles' Web', is set to be tested by the Hawks' firepower on the hallowed turf's wider expanses.
However, Embley believes the Eagles are playing with enough confidence in Simpson's system to ruin the Hawks' bid for a three-peat.
"They're playing with a lot of belief at the moment, so whilst it will be difficult, there's no reason why they can't win it," Embley said.
"My advice is enjoy the moment because AFL football is such a tough game. From a personal perspective, I played for 15 years and made two Grand Finals. I was very fortunate to win a Grand Final.
"Just because you make a Grand Final one year and you might think you've got a squad that could be there the next three or four years – a lot can happen."
