AFL Grand Final burning questions: we look at Sydney, Western Bulldogs match-winners
WE look at the burning questions ahead of the biggest game of the season and who could step up and become match-winners and premiership winners.
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HISTORY will count for nothing at the MCG on Saturday.
The Western Bulldogs might have won the last two meetings against Sydney - both at the SCG - but the AFL Grand Final is a different experience.
We look at the burning questions ahead of the biggest game of the season and who could step up and become match-winners and premiership winners.
THE TACKLE: TRAGIC NO MORE, BULLDOGS ARE SERIOUS
BULLDOGS COACH: BEVO URGES FLAIR AND INSTINCT
1. WHO CAN STOP BUDDY?
Interesting conundrum given his last two Bulldogs’ opponents – Marcus Adams and Michael Talia – won’t be there on Saturday.
Instead, 23-year-old pair Joel Hamling and Fletcher Roberts - if he can hold out Matthew Suckling for a senior spot - look the likely go-to men to stop the superstar Swan.
Franklin’s confidence would be soaring for this one.
His first 13 minutes against Geelong were extraordinary, registering six possessions and five score involvements to ignite the Swans’ early charge.
And while we marvel at Franklin’s goalkicking, it was his exhilarating foot passing to free targets inside 50m that did all the damage early in their preliminary final win.
Expect Franklin to push up the field again on Saturday where he can provide a mobile target for the Swans’ rebounding half backs – which is where they generate the bulk of their scores from.
What an opportunity for Hamling in just his 23rd game after getting delisted from the Cats in 2014.
2. CAN THEY KICK ENOUGH GOALS?
The Bulldogs play the territory game, meaning you can expect the ball to spend the majority of the game inside their forward half.
But the difference will be their ball use.
If the Dogs bomb it long and butcher it as much as the Cats did on Friday night, it won’t matter how many entries the Dogs have (Geelong had 72) because the Swans are the best in the caper at intercepting and scoring on the counter-attack.
Big forwards Tom Boyd and Zaine Cordy will have to provide a strong aerial contest, but it’s the smaller guys who have been doing all the damage, with Clay Smith, Josh Dunkley, Jake Stringer, Tory Dickson and Caleb Daniel hitting the scoreboard in September.
And the midfield delivery men such as Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae and Jason Johannisen will play a massive role to play hitting-up these mid-size targets.
Lace-out passes can crack the Swans’ defence, but long hopeful kicks to the goalsquare will play straight into the Swans’ hands.
Lace-out passes can crack the Swans’ defence, but long hopeful kicks to the goalsquare will play straight into the Swans’ hands. 
3. DOES SYDNEY NEED A LIGHTNING START TO WIN?
Sydney has been the AFL’s best starting team this year, their opening quarter blitzkrieg setting up yet another victory on Friday night.
By quarter time they were 40 points up, with Lance Franklin’s first 13 minutes reaping six disposals, four inside 50s and four score involvements as the Swans kicked five goals to zero.
This year they are plus 287 points in first quarters, clearly the best side in the comp for that stat.
But the one certainty is that they will need to build a lead because this Dogs team just doesn’t quit.
In the final 15 minutes as they overhauled GWS, Jason Johannisen looked like Usain Bolt, Liam Picken and Tom Liberatore were fresh as daisies and the Dogs just kept on coming hard.
So Luke Beveridge will hope to absorb those early body blows with his team-based defence before his team settles Grand Final nerves and warms to the contest.
If the Dogs could be within two goals early in the last term we might just have a cracker on our hands.
INJURED SWANS: ALIIR NOT BEING RULED OUT YET
ON THE FRINGE: LAIDLER SWEATS ON GRAND FINAL SPOT
4. DO THE SWANS CARE ABOUT INSIDE 50s?
Not so much, because they won the 2012 Grand Final despite 18 less inside 50s than Hawthorn.
And against Geelong they lost that count by 32, and 36 across the last three quarters.
So what is going on?
Geelong and the Dogs play very similar territory-based games where they gain ground then try to lock the ball inside 50s.
So you can bet the Dogs will again spend plenty of time in their forward half and just need to cash in better than Geelong.
The Cats butchered it by foot, with Sydney the hardest team in the competition to score against.
Then they launch 43 per cent of their scores from half-back, playing the Rope-A-Dope before slingshotting out of defence.
So the Dogs need to keep hitting up Tory Dickson and cashing in on those entries if they aren’t to follow a similar pattern to Geelong.
THE GAME CHANGERS
ISAAC HEENEY
It’s not just the Western Bulldogs who possess a youngster destined for stardom.
Marcus Bontempelli may sit in the blue corner, but in the red one sits a wonderkid named Isaac Heeney. Like ‘The Bont’, you suspect this young Swan is made for Grand Finals.
With the care-free look, the care-free demeanour and the ice-cold efficiency, it’s hard to believe Heeney is in just his second AFL season.
Yet this is a kid who took to soccer with 68 goals in 12 games, then to cricket with a batting average of 216 and also rugby league with five tries in a school tournament.
He has seemingly been destined for AFL greatness since joining the Swans academy as a 12-year-old.
Now, 37 games into his career, he is blossoming into a talent who changes the direction of games. And all the while he has been carefully managed by his club.
A sizzling start to 2016 ran cold. He was given a rest, then a run in the reserves and has bounced back with venom.
Dangerous as a forward, but like many medium to small sized goalkickers prone to going missing, Heeney has been unleashed on a wing in the Swans’ last two finals against Adelaide and Geelong.
He had a career-high 32 touches against the Crows and another 28 against the Cats and will require a Dogs watching brief given his want to not only float back to help the defence, but also push forward and leap for balls in the air.
Ferocious without the ball and highly damaging with it, Heeney is one of those gifted groundball players who is a better mark than he would appear.
He adds an unpredictable dynamic to a machine-like Sydney approach that perfectly compliments John Longmire’s side.
EASTON WOOD
BRIAN Lake won a Norm Smith Medal in 2013 marshalling the Hawthorn backline like a military general and plucking balls out of the sky like they were on a string.
On Saturday, Easton Wood can be just as influential.
Wood has had such a momentous season, a blinder in the Bulldogs’ most important game in 55 years would be a fitting end to 2016.
The defender was elevated to the Dogs’ leadership group last December, was made vice-captain in the new year and was captain after Round 3 when Robert Murphy’s knee buckled underneath him.
He’s had to overcome his own injury problems - two hamstring tears and a serious ankle injury as late as Round 22 - yet has taken all before him in a superb campaign.
Importantly, he has got better in every final as he regains form and fitness; something coach Luke Beveridge said came in that incredible win over Greater Western Sydney.
Wood battled bravely through his return against West Coast, was serviceable against Hawthorn and was then immense against the Giants.
“He was enormous. His intercept play and the energy,” Beveridge said.
“He hurt his ankle weeks ago and he hasn’t been 100 per cent in the previous two finals, but he felt better tonight; so much so that I think they had to play a negative forward on him.”
Wood isn’t just a stopper - he’s an interceptor, a rebounder and an athlete all rolled on top of basic defensive fundamentals. He does the basics well, but he does the complicated even better.
When the Giants were battling to escape their defensive 50m for large chunks of the preliminary final, Wood was the one launching the ball back in - with a mark of the year contender for good measure.
This season tells us Sydney will start all guns blazing, making Wood’s ability to cut off supply to Lance Franklin, Kurt Tippet and co. vital from the outset.
CASUALTY WARD
SYDNEY
Jarrad McVeigh seems certain to return from a calf injury while defender Aliir Allir is a touch and go proposition after hurting his knee in last Friday’s big win over Geelong
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Jordan Roughead will have treatment through the week for bleeding in his eye but should play while Matt Suckling is fully expected to be available for selection after overcoming an Achilles issues.
JON RALPH’S TIP: Western Bulldogs by 5 points.
Luke Beveridge’s side have swept all before them, knocking over a trio of in-form finals contenders (Eagles, Hawks, Giants) in successive weeks and beating Sydney on their own turf earlier this year.
Fuelled by the run of Jason Johannisen and the grunt work of Liam Picken and Tom Liberatore, they can cause a Grand Final boilover against battle-hardened Sydney
TAB ODDS
Sydney: $1.60
Western Bulldogs: $2.40
PAST 5 CLASHES
Round 15, 2016: Western Bulldogs 13. 5 (83) def Sydney 11.13 (79)
Round 5, 2015: Western Bulldogs 11.11 (77) def Sydney 10.13 (73)
Round 22, 2014: Sydney 20.10 (130) def Western Bulldogs 9.13 (67)
Round 19, 2013: Sydney 21.8 (134) def Western Bulldogs 15. 9 (99)
Round 21, 2012: Sydney 26.11 (167) def Western Bulldogs 13.7 (85)
AT THE MCG IN 2015
SWANS: Played 3. Won 2. Lost 1
BULLDOGS: Played 3. Won 3. Lost 0
ANALYSIS BY JON RALPH, JAY CLARK AND SAM EDMUND
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