Being on the eve of what should be an intriguing finals series, I thought I would go through each of the eight teams involved and summarise their likely routes to goal, starting from the ground up.

Essendon
The youngest and most inexperienced team in the finals, the Bombers really only have one thing going for them: that they are the youngest and most inexperienced team in the finals.

When the Bombers play with youthful abandon, they are a pretty hard team to stop. If they slow down to smell the flowers and think too much about what they are embarking on, they will be absolutely dead in the water.

There’s no better example than the last two minutes of the ANZAC Day game against the Pies, when Essendon threw caution to the wind and conjured three goals in two minutes to win the game, starting with a typical run through the middle by the speedster, Lovett that kick started the come back.

Carlton
Fev must be pretty close to the only traditional leading forward in the final 8. He’s certainly the most prolific, currently leading the goal kicking by 8 goals from Jonathon Brown.

With Gibbs and Judd racking up the possessions and the ability to hit Fev’s chest with a 50m pass, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work this one out.

This is not typical of the sorts of goals Fev will normally kick, but it’s still worth a look.

Brisbane
If Fev is the classic full forward, Jonathon Brown is the classic centre-half forward, the sort that win finals, very much in the mould of Wayne Carey. As mentioned earlier, he’s coming second in the goal kicking, a sign that he has been very close to his very best this season.

Brown still has a few triple premiership players around him, notably Black who has also been in decent form, along with youngsters like Daniel Rich.

This is an older clip, but shows why players like Brown win finals. Typically the move starts with Black winning the ball on centre-wing, Power spots up Brown on the 50, and right on the siren he steers it home to level the game.

Adelaide
The Crows have the porpoise on the ground and the birdman in the air, and an evenness around the ground that has just started to gel.

It’s pretty hard for any defender to stop this. Watch for the 2nd lift, a sure sign that someone is pretty high.

Collingwood
The pies have been relying on a bit of flair and unpredictability for their goals this season, epitomized by the exploits of Dale Thomas and Neon Leon.

The latter, in particular, has added a good dozen to his highlights reel and scrapbook. This one is a typical example: fast, slick, no time to think, pure instinct.

Western Bulldogs
It’s no secret that the bullies have lacked a tall target for, well, since Templeton won the Brownlow in 1980. One doesn’t have to look too much further than that for a string of finals failures.

However, the bullies have the highest points for this season, and by a considerable margin, so the question does need to be asked: can they get ultimate success with a short, pacy forward line?

Here’s one last interesting fact, despite having the highest points for the season, the bullies do not have a single goal kicker in the top dozen, but have a spread of them as long as your arm: Johnson, Welsh, Akermanis, Hill, Higgins, and that’s before we add blokes who love to run and carry through the middle and who can split the sticks from outside 50: Griffen, Gilbee, Eagleton, Boyd and Hahn.

This clip shows the two typical goals the bullies scored in the last few minutes against Collingwood to get them in to 3rd position. One comes from a Missy Higgins run and carry through the middle to inside 50 having broken through a massed defence via slick handball, and the other is a regulation 20 metre spot up of Johnno just inside 50.

Geelong
No team scores more goals from forward line pressure than Geelong. Once the ball spills, there’s a production line of skillful speedsters ready to snag it from around 50, led by Ablett.

One bloke who underscores the defensive forward role like no other is Max Rooke.

This is from last year’s preliminary final against the team they will meet this weekend. Rooke has no real right to make this spoil, but makes it; absolutely poleaxes Johnno, bounces straight up to accept the handball from the spillage for a regulation snap.

St Kilda
If the bullies are at one end of the spectrum with no tall timber, then St Kilda are the exact opposite, with an absolute embarrassment of riches.

Not only that, the two main floating forwards, Riewoldt and Kossie, have each had stellar seasons and have been the icing for the onball work of Montagna and Dal Santo. Riewoldt is 3rd in the goalkicking.

If that weren’t enough, they have other blokes who can take a grab when the team needs it most, like this one from Gardiner to win the game against Geelong earlier in the season.

Watch how he comes from out of the screen, makes up about 35 metres, and then hits the pack with a bang, with a vice like grip on the footy, sending three cats tumbling to the ground.

Now that’s definitely the sort of marking power that wins finals.

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