Finals footy and the Bulldogs are biting

It’s the master versus the apprentice as the Bulldogs take on the Swans for the right to take on Geelong in the Preliminary Final. Meanwhile, Collingwood would be absolutely thrilled at how the finals are shaping up for them.

Bulldogs and former Swans’ coach Rodney Eade goes head to head with Paul Roos in the coaching box. Roos played under Eade for three years at the Swans and was an assistant coach to him before replacing him halfway through the 2002 season.

Given the patriarchal nature of coaching this teacher/pupil thing isn’t unusual. It happened last year with Mick Malthouse and John Worsfold and before then it happened twice in 2004 with Kevin Sheedy, Neale Daniher and Mark Thompson.

Thompson was the only one of the three to defeat his former coach, something Roos will be hoping to emulate come Friday night.

The Swans and Bulldogs had somewhat of a rivalry in the late 90s when Tony Liberatore would snap at Paul Kelly’s heels, but since then it’s died down along the same lines the Swans’ rivalry with the Kangaroos has faded. The common denominator being the playing of games at the neutral and somewhat bland Manuka Oval.

This will be the Swans and Bulldogs first game in Melbourne since 1998 – quite an astonishing statistic.

The pressure is on the Bulldogs not to bow out in straight sets. After 15 rounds of the 2008 season, they had the incredible record of 13-1-1. Since then they have done their best Milorad Cavic impersonation. Should they go down to the Swans don’t be surprised to see some Swans pull out the choking actions like the Lions did a number of years ago.

It’s hard to fight tradition though. Of the remaining clubs in contention, the Bulldogs have the least finals’ pedigree. This will be just their 37th final in 84 years of football. Compare that to the 38 of the West Coast Eagles in 21 years. To compound matters they have only won 11 of those 36 so there isn’t a real winning culture in September that they can fall back on. All there is, is the memory of Rohan Smith banging the MCG turf in despair.

The two have only met twice in finals before – the first in 1942 and the second in 1997 where the Bulldogs ambushed the Swans kicking 9 goals to zero in the opening term.

With the Swans on the way up and the Dogs seemingly on the way down, everything looks to be in favour of the Red and White. Eade has the experience of winning four flags as a player and while Roos can’t say that, he has the advantage of being a premiership winning coach.

Ironically the venue is neutral with the Bulldogs playing at the MCG just about as much as the Swans.

With the final’s experience and nothing to lose, Sydney look to be peaking at the right time.

Prediction: Sydney by 18 points.

St Kilda vs Collingwood

After a short interstate trip to take care of the Crows, the Pies are faced with two finals at the MCG before the Grand Final and cannot play Geelong until then.

In this finals series, which seems to be short on traditional rivalries, St Kilda against Collingwood seems to be about as good as it gets. Of its 41 finals, St Kilda has faced off against the Pies seven times which is more than it has faced anyone else in September. This is more of an old school rivalry where the two clashed three times over a two-year period in 1965-66.

The Saints won two of those three and both by the margin of one point, most famously in the 1966 big one. The custom during the 60s and 70s was for the Grand

Final combatants to swap jumpers after the game, so a generation of people who didn’t know any better thought Collingwood was an absolute juggernaut ’cause just about every year they were doing a lap of honour with the Premiership Cup!

The last final the two played in was in 1992 under those crazy ‘top 6′ years where even though the Eagles were fourth that year, they had a week off before the Grand Final!

Collingwood finished third and were only separated from top spot by percentage.

With no double chance for third spot they were straight out after losing to St Kilda.

No doubt that loss still stings down at Victoria Park.

If finals experience counts for anything you would think Collingwood should win this game by at least 10 goals.

Last week was Ross Lyon’s first final as either a player or coach.

Compare this to Mick Malthouse who played in a premiership side, coached two and all in all has coached 39 finals in addition to the nine he played in.

After last year’s narrow loss to Geelong and to a lesser extent 2002-03, Collingwood will be thinking they have some unfinished business to take care of.

As for St Kilda, the best chance they have is the motivation of trying to prolong Robert Harvey’s career by at least another game.

Sadly for the Saints, there is no place for sentimentality in football, especially when a place in the Preliminary Final is at stake.

Prediction: Collingwood by 48 points

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