Big bird from the west can wreck Hawks' three-peat dream

The Tigers have come a long way in 2015 and now have a genuine touch of class about them, but they're not as even as West Coast. Last week, Collingwood were taken aback by the evenness of the Eagles, finding themselves up against a team with no obvious weakness and a battery of power forwards.

In his playing days at North Melbourne, West Coast coach Adam Simpson was a knowing footballer, one who knew everything that was going on around him and his place in it. West Coast suddenly looks like a knowing team.

The Eagles are also a young team. Hawthorn was a young team when it upset Geelong, the hot favourite, in the 2008 grand final. It was Alastair Clarkson's first – and, in my opinion, best – premiership victory. Young teams can find an energy all their own. They don't know how good they are; the fun, the excitement, is in finding out. I remember Jordan Lewis saying before the 2008 grand final that the Hawks didn't know how good they were. He rated not knowing as an asset going into a final against a proven champion. If you don't know how good you are, how can your opponent?

West Coast has Nic Naitanui. Two or three years ago, commentator Tim Watson remarked: "Just wait until he [Naitanui] realises how good he really is." To some extent, we're still waiting. A player with all Naitanui's gifts – bulk, height, skill, mobility – seems destined by the football gods to become the dominant player of his era.

I keep looking at Naitanui and waiting for a player of Wayne Carey's stature to burst forth. Perhaps his stamina is not equal to the range of his gifts, but for the moment he is merely a very good player and not a truly great one. But you still sense that at any moment he might explode. Naitanui has always had it within him to become one of the mythical figures of the game and, come September, the stage will well and truly be set….

West Coast has Josh Kennedy is an excellent tall forward. Just watch the number of marking contests he gets to, the number of times the ball has to be punched from his hands. And if he misses a contest, he's in just as hard for the next. His kicking is remarkably accurate.

Jack Darling is another tall forward who could be as good as Kennedy, if he's not already. Playing around the pair is Mark LeCras. LeCras looks like a Swedish tennis player. He has fine skills and the robustness to display them. The reason I give West Coast a chance against Hawthorn is because their forward line, unlike Fremantle's, can kick big scores.

Hawthorn has a slick forward line and a library of football learning in the midfield. A couple of weeks ago, Leigh Matthews said the Hawks have four captains – Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Shaun Burgoyne and Jordan Lewis. His co-commentator Dennis Cometti chortled: "And some teams don't have one!" Matthews agreed.

West Coast have a solid captain in Shannon Hurn and their midfield is led by Matt Priddis. I have to confess that, initially, I was among those who thought Priddis' Brownlow Medal win last year was a mistake. Some years that happens with the Brownlow. But I don't think that any more. Priddis doesn't accelerate away from packs like Adelaide's Patrick Dangerfield and his kicking lacks the penetration of Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury but the legs of the West Coast man seem as springy as his hair. Where the game is fiercest and most crowded, he is an indomitable presence.

As a footballer, Priddis brings himself totally to the game; I watched him closely in the minutes before the first bounce of the West Coast-Richmond game in round 12 and declared that West Coast would win. It was like seeing a champion thoroughbred before the running of a big race. He was rippling with energy, but there was no fear, no unsteadiness, in his eyes. Just total readiness. Football is in part about owning space. Priddis claims a large space in the middle of the ground and holds it. He won't be bulldozed.

On Sunday, West Coast plays Sydney. If any of the leading teams now doubt its ability to win the flag, it has to be Sydney. Hawthorn has systematically dismantled them on the last two occasions, the first being last year's grand final. The Swans will be dogged, Buddy will perform, but the game is in Perth and excitement around the Eagles is building.

Teams aren't young for long. Port Adelaide was young last year; they're not nearly as young this year. You have to take your chances when they come and the Eagles, if they dare to believe, are in with a chance....