Tom Liberatore was trying to leave his Nonna's house last Thursday night after dinner but she wouldn't let him go. She was worried about the Hawks the next night.

"Are you going to try? Tell everyone, tell all the players are they going to try?" she implored Tom. He shakes his head when he re-tells it – "she's mad" he laughs – but he told her he would try and so would the rest of the boys.

Then the boys did try and they won, and are now into a preliminary final.

The most famous image of the Bulldogs in a preliminary final involved Tom's dad, Tony, jumping into the arms of Paul Hudson and Brent Montgomery in 1997 celebrating what should have been a match-winning goal only to be denied by an umpire. Preliminary finals have been difficult for the Dogs.

For Tom, a player who has carved his own singular career outside of his father's short but significant shadow, is untroubled by the pressure of family history to take the Dogs where his dad's teams could not.

"The only weight of family history I have on my shoulders is leaving Nonna's joint," he said telling the tale of placating his worried grandmother.

"Other than that, nothing. I don't feel a thing, any pressure or anything like that."

The Bulldogs preliminary final bogey – they are nine losses and one win in Prelim finals and their only win came more than 50 years ago – is also of no concern to this current generation of Dogs.

"We have not thought like that. We have never really taken into account too much of the past given how glum how dark it was in the last few years but with the new blood, the new players we used the good stuff from the past and we have so much experience with Gia and Murph and Dale and Boydy who assist us with making sure it's our brand, our own individual niche of young players," Tom said.

"We are a completely different bunch of boys than what they were – we will create our own history."

Tom reasons that the club has been burdened more by external than familial expectation in the finals for they were the team the rest of the AFL wanted to stop Hawthorn's run, and now the team everyone seems to want to defeat the AFL's project club.

"There's nothing better to make a prelim final knocking off a team as good as Hawthorn. Now we only have the weight of the whole AFL world on our shoulders as well which is nice.

"Everything is a bonus really we approached this finals series with a sense of riskiness and not laissez faire but we have kind of gone back to how we got to our best last year, throwing caution to the wind at times and being a bit more risky with the ball."

Like Liberatore Jnr, Liam Picken carries with him a family history of denial in finals. Billy Picken played in four losing and one drawn grand final for Collingwood. He was renowned for being a star of those finals but his sides could never win.

Liam shrugs, he is more comfortable talking about the team than himself, let alone discussing his dad.

"There are no expectations now we are just going to take it. Not many people gave us a chance so we are just going to run with it and see how far we can take it," he said.

Bill Picken has always liked watching Liam play footy, but he likes it a lot more now. Now Liam plays more like he used to as a kid, which is a bit more like Bill used to.

For the first stages of his career Liam found his way into the game not as the son of a champion, but scrapping as a battler trying to make it. His dad was a centre half back who, like Peter Knights, played the position with a forward's daring. He took mark of the year in 1976 with a mark that would stand any era. He seemed to take them weekly.

In contrast Liam arrived in the game almost as a polar opposite to his dad as a niggardly tagger. In his first game for the Bulldogs he tagged Brent Harvey and kept him goalless. Liam only had nine touches but that day the Dogs won and Liam led them from the field.

Liam was never troubled by the role he was given, it was the game he was given that was more important. Since he made that debut he has played more games than any other Bulldog player, which perhaps better than anything illustrates the love for him in Footscray.

When Luke Beveridge arrived he reinvented Liam by taking him back where he started. The message was simple: go and play like you did when you were a kid.

"I have gone back to when I was growing up playing footy and just going for the ball so there is a lot of natural instinct and I am just enjoying it," Liam said.

"I only knew one way: to defend. When Bevo came here he told me to explore my game and get attacking and be able to help the team with offence. He was the one who brought it up."

Liam has strong hands and his dad's ability over head which has meant as a small forward he can yet be a difficult to match up on target. There is more craft o his game than was evident when he played on ball. Against West Coast in the elimination final he booted two goals and took nine marks, against Hawthorn it was eight marks and three goals.

Bill is glad his son is now showing the other side to his game.

"Ever since he was a kid he was a good mark and a good leap. He curtailed that with the jobs he has done and he would always do whatever role the team needed or the coaches asked," Bill said.

"I used to go and watch him play and count the tackles and the defensive acts. It could get a little bit boring but you knew that was what was important.

"It's good now. It's good to watch him go for the ball. And the Bulldogs play with a good bit of freedom. It's a good brand to watch, it's very similar to the GWS to be honest so it should be a good game."

Family history will matter little by Saturday but then there is one comforting family final connection for Liam: Jonathon Brown is a cousin.