THE TRIPLE premiership winning Brisbane Lions of 2001-03 were a team full of individually gifted players who under Leigh Matthews' guidance, played a most uncomplicated brand of football.

Playing against the great Lions teams of that era, you got a sense that they didn't waste a lot of time on tricks, tactics or even match-ups. They simply focused on winning more contests than the opposition, moving the ball as quickly as possible and kicking long into their forward line.

Geelong coach Chris Scott was an integral part of that successful era.

Although he has been reluctant to tinker with the Cats' game plan too heavily during his first year, as the finals drew near, the numbers suggest that he began to replicate the simplified approach that he knows works on the big stage.

In their 96-point win over Collingwood in Round 24, the Cats had 76 effective long kicks; in their qualifying final win over Hawthorn last week, they notched up 69 effective long kicks, the two highest for the Cats this season.

Between rounds one and 23, Geelong were fifteenth in the competition for their kick-to-handball ratio, but in the last two weeks they have ranked second.

Scott would love to have his old teammates Alastair Lynch and Jonathan Brown roaming the forward half of the ground but the combination of Podsiadly, Hawkins, Ottens and West still looks dangerous enough, particularly when you have the quality of Johnson, Chapman, Stokes and Varcoe ready to pounce on anything at ground level.

As a tactic, long kicks to big targets close to goal works under the extreme pressure of a final. It may be simple and predictable, but the long kick to a contest is the easiest skill to execute.

Even if you don't win the contest, it gives you the opportunity to set up your defence from the most attacking part of the ground, 30 metres out from your own goal. Speak to any defenders and they'll quietly tell you that their worst nightmare is setting up against sides that play the way Geelong have played in the past two weeks.

Leigh Matthews also had some fairly basic requirements for his ruckmen: commit your body to the contest and smash the ball forward at every opportunity. Clark Keating didn't front a lot during the home and away season but come September he played in this role and was rewarded with three premierships.

In a similar vein, Chris Scott will be enjoying what Trent West and Brad Ottens are giving Geelong: a hard competitive contest around the stoppages and the added bonus of becoming a dangerous target when pushing forward.

Mick Malthouse often says that when you stand still during the game, even for a moment, others will quickly go past you. Collingwood's unshakeable faith in their plan to attack along the boundary with quick ball movement and a fanatical forward press brought down Mark Thompson's Geelong team which, until then, had looked unstoppable.

But Chris Scott hasn't stood still for a moment and his rejuvenated group of players are in a position where they can win a third premiership. With Geelong and Collingwood enjoying a week off leading into preliminary final weekend, it is almost set in stone that they will meet in the Grand Final.

But the Magpies, at their best, still look to be far too strong. It could be that the only thing that stands between Collingwood and back-to-back flags is a debut coach with a history of finding success by borrowing an old-fashioned game plan from an old master in Leigh Matthews.