The dominant Bendigo Bank Cats side of 2007 stacks up admirably against the club’s runaway premiership team of 2002 in all aspects apart from experience, VFL premiership coach Ron Watt said.

The Cats of 2002 comprised a strong spine of big-game-experience players, coupled with the zest and flamboyancy of a dozen fresh-faced youngsters, who rotated through the side during the season.

In contrast, Steven King will be the only experienced Cat running around in the VFL on Sunday, while a number of young players will have not played an AFL game.

“In 2002, we had Mitchell White, Bluey McGrath and Menschy – all 150/200 gamers – and we also had (Brent) Grgic who had also played about 90 games and (James) Rahilly who had played about 50 games,” Watt said.

“So we had a fair bit of experience, even though we had a lot of young players.

“That’s the big difference, we’ve got a few VFL-listed players in the finals this year who have got a little bit of experience, whereas in 2002, we didn’t use any VFL-players in the grand final, it was all AFL-listed players.

“So I would say this year’s team is not quite as experienced as 2002 - this year there’s an experienced player like Kingy, but in 2002, we had three blokes of Kingy’s experience in the team.”

In terms of the team’s status in the league, one of the biggest differences between the class of 2002 and the class of 2007 is that in 2002, the VFL Cats were the undisputed pacesetters of the competition.

Sandringham’s almighty dynasty was beginning to warm up, but it was by no means irresistible, so there was no immovable stumbling block between the Cats and their first VFL flag.

Fast-forward to 2007 and the Cats, despite their supremacy throughout the home and away season, always played second fiddle to an almighty Zebras side.

But now Sandringham has been banished off the finals radar and the Cats can head into the grand final full of momentum after two blistering finals performances.

Watt believes that was a defining difference, adding it became apparent during season 2002 that the Cats had a genuine chance at the flag if they stuck to their guns.

“In 2002 I think during the year we had a real confidence that we were going to be able to do something pretty good because we’d been pretty dominant,” he said.

“Whereas this team probably hasn’t really fulfilled that until the last half of the season and they’ve really come home well.

“I think in 2002 a lot of our younger boys started to get fairly tired around finals time, so we sort of had to hold on and the experience helped us through that I suppose.

“There’s a few things that are different and a few things that are markedly similar about the two teams.”

Seventeen members of the Cats’ 2002 premiership team had played a combined total of 700 AFL games, including seven AFL grand finals.

Conversely, their opposition Port Melbourne had only nine players who had played a combined of just over 200 AFL games, with just one AFL grand final.

On Sunday, that figure of experience for the Cats will be slashed to about 500 AFL games.

By the numbers, the Cats of 2002 conceded the least points against and kicked the third most points for.

Likewise, the Cats of 2007 had a watertight defence that was ranked number one, while also being the most prolific scorers with an attack also ranked number one.

In 2002, the Cats finished the home and away season one game and percentage clear on top of the ladder with only three losses from 20 games, compared with the Cats of 2007, who finished in second position with only four losses from 18 games for the season.

Watt believes last year’s heartbreaking grand final defeat to Sandringham, where the Cats succumbed to a debilitating bout of stage fright in the first half, will serve as a catalyst to propel the side into action on Sunday against Coburg.

After trailing by 34 points going into the final quarter on a rain-drenched afternoon, the Cats kicked the first five goals of the final quarter and looked certain to hit the lead late in the match.

“I don’t think you can ever play in too many grand finals,” he said.

“It certainly will help a lot of them in knowing what to expect. The feeling that they got when they didn’t win last year, compared with the feeling they will hopefully get this year if they win, will be significantly different and they wouldn’t want to experience that bad feeling again.

“I’m sure that playing last year will help. They’ll be more settled this year, they’ll know what to expect, they’ll know that they will have to give a really good account of themselves, because they only played 10 or 15 good minutes of footy last year and nearly won the game.”

Watt, who played an instrumental part in Bannockburn’s reserves grade premiership in the Geelong and District Football League on Saturday, is confident the Cats can walk away with their second piece of VFL silverware this weekend.

“I hope they can win, it would be terrific for the club and terrific for the boys who are playing,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what level you play at, premierships are really appreciated and you never forget them and they’re really significant in your life.”