MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Defending champions Brisbane Lions battle the Geelong Cats for unofficial "team of the century" honours in Saturday's Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, with each club chasing a fifth championship in 25 years.
Brisbane matched Geelong's modern haul of four titles (2007, 2009, 2011, 2022) in the top flight of Australian Rules with a 60-point demolition of Sydney last season.
Now they target back-to-back trophies for the first time since their "three-peat" from 2001-03.
For Lions fans, spoilt with a third Grand Final in three years, the good times are all the sweeter for the prolonged period of misery following defeat to Port Adelaide in the 2004 title-decider.
Brisbane missed out on finals football for 13 out of 14 seasons up to 2018 before their renaissance under current coach Chris Fagan.
Those dark days aside, the team has become a symbol of the sport's success in creating a foothold in rugby league country since their 1987 launch as the Brisbane Bears.
Geelong, meanwhile, have rarely known tough times in the modern era of AFL.
They are renowned for being the league's most generous team in delivering joy to their fans in the sleepy port city near Melbourne.
The Cats have missed finals just three times in that period, defying AFL convention that success must follow painful rebuilding.
They have often been written off, most recently after missing the 2023 playoffs, but have always stormed back into championship contention under long-serving coach Chris Scott and his canny recruiters.
Despite golden periods for both teams in the last quarter-century, Saturday's showdown in front of 100,000 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will be the first time the modern heavyweights have met in a Grand Final.
Neutral fans have every right to hope for a classic on Saturday even if "the last match in September" invariably serves up one-sided thrashings.
Both teams are dripping with talent across the field, with hardened campaigners and dashes of youthful flair.
Brisbane will worry about how to stop Geelong's talismanic captain Patrick Dangerfield, a midfield bulldozer who booted three goals in a best-on-ground performance to send Hawthorn crashing out of the finals a week ago.
Geelong will fret about the mercurial Cam Rayner, the wildcard in the Lions' industrious forward line.
The teams met three weeks ago in the qualifying final, with the Cats surging to a dominant, 38-point win at the MCG.
That earned Geelong a week's rest and they enter the Grand Final as the bookmakers' favourites.
But the Lions have momentum after dismantling Gold Coast (53 points) and Collingwood (29 points) in their last two finals.
Brisbane's veteran defender Dayne Zorko dismissed the idea of fatigue being a problem for the reigning champions.
"You've always got juice on Grand Final week," he said.
"This is the spot you want to be. This is the game you want to get up for."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Graff)
