COLLINGWOOD and Geelong don't have a rivalry that springs to mind immediately - or a past that stirs passions quite like the Magpies' duels with Carlton - but they do have a surprisingly rich history in Grand Finals.
The Cats and Magpies have faced each other five times in Grand Finals, the first in 1925 and most recent in 1953, with Geelong holding the advantage 3-2 ahead of this Saturday's decider.
It is a rivalry that perhaps has more significance to Geelong, which won its first VFL premiership against Collingwood in 1925 and has faced the Magpies in more Grand Finals than it has any other club.
Indeed, Collingwood is also the only club that Geelong has beaten multiple times in a Grand Final, with its five other premierships coming against St Kilda (2009), Port Adelaide (2007), Hawthorn (1963), Essendon (1951) and Richmond (1931).
The Magpies, by comparison, have a long list of Grand Final rivalries, facing Melbourne (seven), Carlton and Richmond (six) and Essendon (four) in multiple premiership deciders.
The two clubs began their Grand Final rivalry in 1925, with Geelong enjoying a dominant season, winning 12 consecutive games on its way to the Grand Final (including two wins over the Magpies).
The Cats had been starved of success since joining the VFL in 1987, but they were undaunted, prevailing by 10 points against the Magpies in the decider to win their first VFL premiership.
It would be five years until the two clubs met again in a Grand Final with Collingwood entering the 1930 season in pursuit of its fourth consecutive premiership.
'The Machine', as the dominant group was known, was without its legendary coach Jock McHale, who was ill, and they had been outplayed by Geelong in the clubs' two meetings that year, losing by 18 and 26 points.
In the game that mattered, however, the Pies avenged their 1925 loss, winning by 30 points and becoming the first club to win four straight premierships.
In 1937, Geelong had again enjoyed a 12-game winning streak through the season but football watchers - just as they have been this week - were divided on whether the Cats or the Magpies should be favourites in the Grand Final.
Geelong had beaten Collingwood by 23 points in the team's last meeting in round 12 and the Cats would prevail by 32 points in the decider to win their third flag.
Their fourth would come in 1951, against Essendon, and they earned the opportunity to defend their title against Collingwood one year later.
They entered the 1952 Grand Final buoyed by a 54-point win over the Magpies in the second semi-final and were 46-point victors in the Grand Final.
Collingwood, which had finished runner-up in the 1937, '38, '39 and '52 Grand Finals, enjoyed sweet revenge in '53, the last time these two clubs met in a premiership decider.
Fifty-eight years on, both clubs enter Saturday's match with recent successes, Collingwood defending its 2010 premiership and Geelong playing for its third since 2007.
But both clubs have also endured the 'chokers' tag at times in their history.
The Cats have a record of 8-8 from their 16 Grand Finals (also finishing runner-up in 1897 when there was no Grand Final to decide the premier) but they endured a heartbreaking run of four straight losses between 1989 and 1995.
That losing streak stretches to five when 1967 is taken into account.
Collingwood, meanwhile, sparked the 'Colliwobbles' phenomenon when it lost eight consecutive Grand Finals between (and including) 1960 and 1981.
Neither club will carry that tag in Saturday's match, having respectively won their most recent Grand Final appearances (both against St Kilda), but there obviously will be a loser.
Whichever way Saturday's match falls, it will be another chapter in a grand rivalry.
