Chris Scott will be hoping his Cats get away to a good start after the bye weekend. Geelong had soft wins in their last four matches – Essendon, Brisbane and Melbourne gave them little or no resistance, and the win over Richmond was an indictment on the Tigers, conceding almost a seven-goal lead from three-quarter time. Hawthorn, on the other hand, scraped in by the barest of margins, through sheer willpower, team chemistry and a fluky piece of play from a fill-in ruckman in Jack Fitzpatrick – but maybe it was the fright Alastair Clarkson's men needed to wake them up.

Things have changed at the Cattery this year, and of all the imported players Patrick Dangerfield has certainly had the biggest impact. Previously, Geelong had been a poor centre square bounce clearance team that relied heavily on defenders to make the turnover to start a scoring chain.

Now with some better ruckmen in Zac Smith and Rhys Stanley and Dangerfield working in tandem with the skipper Joel Selwood and Josh Caddy, Geelong have been able to win more clearances and play the game more in the front half of the ground. They finished the home and away season as the No.2 CSB clearance team and also translated that indicator into more inside 50s, to be the No.1 inside 50 marking team in the league.

Conversely, the Hawks have been without their talisman forward in Jarryd Roughead and have relied heavily on their triad of small forwards in Luke Breust, Paul Puopolo and Cyril Rioli to create the spark that sees them or one of the medium talls Jack Gunston or James Sicily pop up to score.

Clarkson has tried both Ryan Schoenmakers and Marc Pittonet as additional tall forwards trying to prepare forhaving to take the "long down the line" kick, as so often happens in finals.

As this game unfolds, both teams' defenders have different briefs in what type/size of dangerous forwards they will be up against, but it will be won and lost in the middle, where CSB clearance will determine which forward line gets more score opportunities.