THE MAJOR weapon the Western Bulldogs have going for them heading into Saturday's Grand Final is not any of the 22 players in their midst, as tough, talented and magnificent as they have been.

No. It is the man pulling strings from the coach's box, Luke Beveridge, who will be chiefly responsible if the Bulldogs can cap the fairytale and win their first premiership since 1954 and just their second overall.

Amazingly, for someone who never came within a bull's roar of a premiership in his 118-game playing career over 11 years with Melbourne, the Bulldogs and St Kilda, he can't help but win them as a coach.

Beveridge started out his coaching career with St.Bedes/Mentone Tigers in 2006 in C Section of the Victorian Amateur Football Association. He created history there with three flags in three years and since moving to AFL ranks, has been involved in another three, one at Collingwood and two at Hawthorn.

Success follows him wherever he is.

Guns of the west: Emotion spills over for brave Bulldogs

His first flag was his most famous, as playing coach of St.Bedes in 2006. His team found itself 47 points behind AJAX in the second quarter. Beveridge took himself from the ground, spent five minutes shuffling the whiteboard with his assistants, returned to the half-back line and quarterbacked his men to an epic one-point win.

He backed up with the B Section and A Section flags the next two years, a feat never achieved before in the 120-year history of the amateurs.

At the Pies he was a development coach under Mick Malthouse when they won the 2010 flag, but at Hawthorn he completely remoulded the backline, turning Josh Gibson into a major weapon and the likes of Ben Stratton and Taylor Duryea into really good league footballers.

There is nothing about the week ahead that will throw Beveridge. He forecast on Saturday night that his players would embrace the week and you can bet Beveridge will make them enjoy it.

"There will be a lot of exciting things going on and the nature of our players and the way they're built — such a contemporary new-age sort of a bunch, they'll just take it in their stride," he said.

Some Grand Final storylines

Getting in early with some of the stories that will dominate Grand Final week.

1. Is this Buddy's time?
Of course the player who most likely stands in Beveridge's way is Lance Franklin, who he helped coach at the Hawks for a couple of years. Franklin was the most influential player on the ground in the first half on Friday night against Geelong with a couple of goals, a couple of assists and a hit on Steven Motlop that the Cats forward is probably still feeling and that set a tone for the Swans.

The moment: Buddy brilliance leaves Cats clawing at thin air

But the thing about Franklin is that he was brought to the Swans not just to put bums on seats, but to win flags as well. He is playing as well as ever, but this might represent his best chance to win a flag given that he is at the peak of his powers, the Swans midfield is probably the strongest it will be for some time and clubs such as the Bulldogs, the Giants and others are coming fast.

2. Fitness first
Both clubs have plenty to consider on the injury and fitness front over the next few days. Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh missed the preliminary final with a calf strain, while NAB Rising Star Callum Mills will have been sidelined for 21 days come Grand Final day with a regulation hamstring strain. Does the conservative John Longmire roll the dice with either?

Then there's Aliir Aliir, the rapidly emerging first-year key defender who hurt his knee in the preliminary final. The Swans kept him off the ground once it was clear they were going win, but he faces a tough and emotional week. His absence would likely keep journeyman defender Jeremy Laidler in the side, but there is also a glimmer of hope for Ted Richards, the soon-to-be-retired key defender who has been kept out of the side by Aliir.

At the Dogs, ruckman Jordan Roughead will spend this week dealing with concussion after copping a second-term 'falcon'. Lest we be too flippant, this one brought on bleeding behind his eye and he will go through the normal protocols this week. He has had a fantastic finals series and besides, what would a Grand Final be without a Roughead?

And there is Matty Suckling, whose sore Achilles has made him an every-second-week proposition for the Dogs of late. He didn't play the preliminary final but if there was something apart from his smooth kicking that he was brought to the Whitten Oval for, it is his premiership experience. He played in the 2014 and 2015 Hawthorn premierships and is the only player on the Bulldogs list who has played in a Grand Final.

An Achilles can be a ticking time bomb, but can the Dogs squeeze one last game out of him before he gets it fixed?

3. Ben McGlynn
The feel-good stories don't just surround the Western Bulldogs. The Swans would be desperate to win a flag for the unlucky Ben McGlynn, who missed out at 2008 when at Hawthorn and in 2012 with the Swans when he pinged a hamstring.

McGlynn did play in 2014 when the Swans were thrashed by the Hawks and at 31, this might well be his last game. He was excellent against Geelong in the preliminary final and of all the Swans, is most deserving of a premiership in 2016.

4. Shane Biggs and Josh Dunkley
Biggs joined the Dogs in 2015 after six unobtrusive games in two years for the Swans. Lacking in frills and profile, he nevertheless quietly slotted nicely into the Bulldogs back half and will run out against his former club in the Grand Final on Saturday.

Dunkley's story in 2016 is a bit like that of the Swans' Josh Kennedy in 2012 and 2014. We know that Kennedy was a third-generation member of Hawthorn's greatest family, but the Dunkley name is well regarded at the Swans, with Andrew Dunkley playing 217 games over 11 years between 1992 and 2002. The Swans even went to the Supreme Court in 1996 to overturn a suspension ruling him out of the Grand Final.

The Swans passed up Josh as a father-son selection at last year's national draft. They were never that keen and nor was Josh all that excited about having to move north to Sydney, so let's not get too hung up on the 'sticking it to the Swans' storyline.

But it is always interesting when a club stalwart has a son playing in a Grand Final in the opposition club's colours, although we don't doubt that Andrew Dunkley's allegiance on Saturday will be firmly with the Bulldogs. We should also note that Billy Picken, Liam's dad, was a Collingwood icon but also spent a couple of years with the Swans.

And while we're on the subject of feet in both camps, we can think of Barry Round, Barry Hall, Neil Cordy, Stuart Magee, Robert McGhie, Stevie Hoffman, Gary 'Crazy Horse' Cowton and Jimmy Edmond just for starters. Who else have we missed?

Zak Jones in action for the Swans on Friday night. Picture: AFL Photos 

5. Little brother comes up trumps
Longmire was full of praise for the returning Zak Jones on Friday night for his "zip, hardness and energy across the ground".

Jones has played 30 games in three years and is about to play in a Grand Final. Older brother Nathan is still waiting for his chance after 223 games in 11 years for Melbourne.

But there was anything but sibling envy in the Swans rooms after the game. "Really proud of him," Nathan Jones said after the match before adding, "I still might get there as well."

6. 2014 on their mind
Make no mistake, the memories of 2014 still burn deeply in the minds of the Swans. They entered the game against Hawthorn as the raging favourites and were embarrassed by 63 points.

"We were terrible that day," Nick Smith said on Friday, and you get the feeling that the humiliation has lived with the Swans ever since.

The crippling injury run and Franklin's absence last year denied the Swans any real chance to make an impact on the finals. No such excuses this year; there is a steeliness around this side and you don't think for a moment they'll be caught napping like they were by the Hawks two years ago. 

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