• Grand Final preview: Hawthorn v West Coast
• What you need to know for the Grand Final
• Last time they met: Hawthorn v West Coast
• Disposal quality, not quantity, key to Mitchell
• Dead-eye Hawks could have a major advantage
SMALL forwards don't seem to have natural predators anymore.
In five of eight finals in 2015, a small forward has kicked the most goals for one of the teams.
Michael Walters did it in both games for Fremantle while Eddie Betts, Luke Breust, Cyril Rioli and Josh Hill (who matched Josh Kennedy in the qualifying final) were critical in winning games for their team.
Perhaps that's why three will take the field for each team on Grand Final day.
Hawthorn's Rioli, Breust and Paul Puopolo are pocket rockets, 17cm shorter if placed end-to-end than the Eagles' trio Patrick Cripps, Mark Le Cras and Josh Hill.
Between them the Hawks have kicked 121 goals in 2015 while the Eagles smalls have combined for 117.
Watching the role evolve with interest since he was the leading small forward in the AFL has been former West Coast little man Phil Matera.
He admires the current crop but notes they are both taller and generally given more latitude than they were in the recent past when he kicked 389 goals in 179 games from 1996-2005.
"[It's] totally changed to the days when we played," Matera told AFL.com.au.
"A lot of these guys seem to be on ski ropes compared to when we played."
The numbers suggest the three Hawks have similar patterns.
All three average more than 15 pressure acts a game and above 5.7 score involvements a game.
While Breust and Puopolo kick most of their goals from general play and Rioli kicks most of his from marks it is their ability to worry opposition defenders that increases their value beyond many sneaky forwards of the past.
Unfortunately for Fremantle's defenders, they found that out late in last week's preliminary final.
Matera was not a sneaky forward. He re-engineered the specialist small forward role but admits that he would have had to work even harder if he was playing on Saturday.
"They play out of the forward line a lot more than I did," Matera said.
"We didn't play outside the 50 to be honest."
LeCras works further and wider than his Eagles teammates Hill and Cripps but is so good he has still managed to kick 44 goals.
Averaging 18 touches a game his role is similar to North Melbourne's Shaun Higgins, being almost a midfield forward, with 61.4 per cent of LeCras’ coming from marks when he sits forward and leads back up to the kicker.
Don't be surprised if he has Hawk star Shaun Burgoyne for company on Saturday whenever he goes forward.
Cripps is the tackling machine of the six, averaging 2.5 tackles inside 50 this season and 18 pressure acts a game.
Hill plays a valuable role when the Eagles turn the ball over, sitting wide to create an outlet option for teammates.
And when he gets a chance to kick a goal, he takes it, having kicked at 69.6 per cent accuracy for the season.
As Matera notes, times have changed.
Whereas once it was said that you couldn't win a premiership without a key forward, nowadays everyone knows that a key forward without a few smalls buzzing around their feet is not going to bring home a flag.
And the game should be bigger for their presence.
Stats supplied by Champion Data
