Second preliminary final

Geelong v Sydney Swans at the MCG on Friday night

IN A YEAR in which the likely Grand Final match-up changed from week to week, we can say with a fair degree of certainty that one of Geelong and the Sydney Swans were among the two premiership favourites pretty much every week of the year

They were the teams with the fewest flaws for 2016, so the one shame is that they're meeting at the MCG on the second last Friday in September rather than the first Saturday in October.

For the Cats, the post-siren reprieve against the Hawks last week is the gift that keeps on giving and they would have really enjoyed watching the Swans and the Crows belt each other up and down the SCG on Saturday night, at least in the first half, with the result that the Swans will go into this game significantly short-sticked.

Jarrad McVeigh will miss after pinging his calf. Gary Rohan did his knee and on spacious MCG he will be sorely missed. He torched the Hawks for three goals there the last time the Swans visited. Kurt Tippett (jaw) and Callum Mills (hamstring) are making noises about playing but almost certainly won't, while Zak Jones (concussion) has yet to pass the requisite tests.

Harry Cunningham and Dean Towers would seem to be the next two men up for the Swans and both have played enough senior footy this year that there won't be too many jitters from the Swans coaching staff. But there aren’t too many more that the Swans can choose from.

If you like watching two hard-headed midfields go at it, then the MCG is the place to be. Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood and Scott Selwood on one side, with Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Kieren Jack and Dan Hannebery on the other. Maybe add Tom Mitchell for the Swans as well, for he was great as well against the Crows.

Key Cat firms for preliminary final

This will be where this preliminary final is decided and if the Swans can win enough of the ball then Lance Franklin will get opportunities to win the game. The big Bud might have a Bondi address these days, but his true home ground is the MCG and there is no better stage for Franklin than the MCG in September. It is where he did his best work for Hawthorn and he is primed to bust one open for the Swans.

It would be unfair to say that Franklin owes the Swans a big one in September, firstly because of the events of last September and also because he has been outstanding for the club throughout his time there, and this year might have been his best year of football overall, save for his 100-goal campaign back in 2008.

But he was brought to the Swans to help the club to more silverware and given the looming juggernauts playing in the other preliminary final, 2016 might be the best and last chance he might get, while he is at the peak of his powers, to win a flag for the Swans.

It is the urgency around this that adds to the intrigue on Friday night. The Cats went on a recruiting spree of their own, selling the farm to bring Dangerfield home from Adelaide, as well as Zac Smith, Lachie Henderson and Scott Selwood. The midfield superstar has won every individual award on offer this year and the bigger the spotlight, the better he has played.

The Cats didn't muck around when it came to their off-season recruiting haul and there is real expectation around Geelong when it comes to winning the premiership this year, particularly in a year as wide open as this year.

Geelong would have likely been hoping for an Adelaide win on Saturday night. They twice comfortably handled the Crows this year – in Adelaide and at Geelong – and would have entered an MCG final with supreme confidence. But the only Geelong-Swans match this year resulted in an emphatic win for the Swans, down at Skilled Stadium by 38 points. It was won in the clinches and came off a six-day break, both great omens for the Swans heading into this one.

The last time the two clubs played on the MCG the Swans won by 10 goals and was also a preliminary final. But it was also back in 1934. Bob Pratt kicked six goals for the Swans, while Laurie Nash and Ossie Bertram both booted four, which means it is time for some new history to be written.

First Preliminary Final

Greater Western Sydney v Western Bulldogs at Spotless Stadium on Saturday

There are so many great storylines heading into the Saturday twilight preliminary final that in terms of interest to the neutral, it is probably the more fascinating game.

For starters, it ensures a fresh look to the Grand Final. The Dogs haven't been there in 55 years, the Giants, of course, never at all.

There is no historical millstone around the Giants, and you suspect, not much pressure. And while the Bulldogs are also playing with free spirits, the old-timers around the club and the supporter base will feel the weight of history, with a 0-7 record in preliminary finals stretching back to 1985 when they ran Hawthorn to 10 points at Waverley.

That was the day soon-to-be Brownlow medalist Brad Hardie had Leigh Matthews banished to the bench for nearly two quarters only for the ageing Hawk legend to return in the final quarter to kick two important goals to get his team home.

Then there was 1997, when Tony Liberatore's match-sealing goal was ruled a point and leaving the door ajar for Adelaide, which stormed home to win by two points and which would win the flag the next year. In 2009 they fought the red-hot favourites St Kilda to just seven points, beaten only by some Nick Riewoldt magic.

Another angle for the week is the venue, Spotless Stadium, which holds just 24,000. The Giants have 16,000 or so members, while the AFL claims that no more than 8000 visiting team members ever travel to interstate finals from Victoria.

Let's hope the AFL has run the numbers correctly, because as mentioned there is history here in the making (apologies for stealing a line from the Port Adelaide club song) and it will be an outrage if club members miss out on seeing this one. President Peter Gordon is already suggesting many more than 8000 Dogs fans plan to be in Sydney for this one.

Will Spotless Stadium be big enough to handle the influx of Dogs fans? Picture: AFL Photos

The over-arching story for many will be Callan Ward, Ryan Griffen and Tom Boyd. Ward would still be a Bulldog had the club found a mere extra $50,000 at the end of 2011, while Griffen, the star Bulldogs midfielder but reluctant club captain, forced his way out of the Whitten Oval at the end of 2014 because of a supposed rift with then coach Brendan McCartney, who left the club shortly after. To call it a mess was an understatement, but Griffen has since found peace on Bondi beach and football prosperity in the west of Sydney.

After one year with the Giants, No.1 draft pick Boyd headed to the Bulldogs in exchange for Griffen, despite all sorts of vows from the Giants that he was untouchable. He didn't come cheap for the Bulldogs and with a contract in the ballpark of $1 million a year.

There are slow-developing key forwards and then there is Boyd, who underwhelmed in year one at the Whitten Oval and only earned himself a regular berth in this year's side when Jack Redpath tore his ACL on that horrid night against St Kilda in round 18 when Mitch Wallis suffered his gruesome broken leg.

Boyd has been decent since and in both finals has shown glimpses of the dominant power forward he could become. Imagine if his breakout game comes against his former club on the big stage of the preliminary final.

And while Hawthorn is done and dusted for the season, the spectre of the three-time reigning premiers still hangs over this game with coaches Leon Cameron and Luke Beveridge both former assistant coaches at Hawthorn under Alastair Clarkson.

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Their paths at Hawthorn only crossed for one year – 2012 – and while Clarkson said on Friday night he hoped the Dogs would "take it right up" to the Giants, he was careful to leave it here because he clearly has affection for all his former assistants who are now rival senior coaches.

Cameron and Beveridge were also teammates at the Bulldogs between 1993 and 1995. Cameron is a 10-year, 172-game player for the Dogs and at any other time, his sympathies for the club would run deep.

Both these teams have won through to the penultimate weekend of the season using the same formula – tough footy on the inside, hard running and spread outside.

It is how the Giants ultimately brought the Swans undone the week before last at ANZ Stadium, while the Dogs smashed West Coast and then the Hawks both inside and out.

This final will be played at breakneck speed – both teams know no other way – but the twist here is the new AFL fixture arrangement, which, because of the pre-finals bye, means the Giants will be playing their second game in just 28 days.

The Dogs have an extra game in their legs, but this will be their third game outside Victoria in their last four. Will that be a factor?

Neither side lacks for confidence. The Giants are loaded with high draft picks who have known for some time they are destined to play finals footy. And what we have seen from the Dogs of late is they relish the big stage.

Marcus Bontempelli and Jake Stringer reveled in front of 87,000 fans on Friday night – the third biggest crowd ever to watch the Bulldogs – but Jack Macrae, Liam Picken, Caleb Daniel, Lachie Hunter … the list of Bulldogs who are thriving this September is endless. There is a tempo and a rhythm to the Dogs and it is intoxicating.

The Dogs have started to make the scoreboard tick over after a lean few weeks before the finals, but this will be their biggest issue on Saturday. Jeremy Cameron kicked four against the Swans and was arguably the most influential player on the ground and while Jonathan Patton was quiet, he was in great touch before the finals.

This is where the preliminary final might be decided. The Bulldog defenders are brave – and quick when they get some space – but not overly tall and the Giants would like to think that Cameron, Patton and Rory Lobb could give them the edge. The Dogs might need to kick 100 points to win this one.