HAWTHORN is chasing immortality as just the sixth team to win a hat-trick of premierships, while the Eagles are chasing the fairytale premiership – from 13th to first in just two seasons.
Three consecutive premierships in a system specifically designed not to allow that sort of thing to happen would be wonderful for the Hawks.
But what a shot in the arm it would be for some of the competition battlers to see the Eagles complete the rags-to-riches story.
As usual, every angle of the Grand Final will be debated at length and ad nauseum over the next six days. But let's get in early with a look at four particularly topical questions.
How much should we read into the qualifying final result?
The most important consequence of the 32-point West Coast win was not any tactical or psychological advantage it handed the Eagles, but what it meant for the Hawks.
Rather than put their feet up the next week, the Hawks returned back to the MCG where they comfortably accounted for Adelaide in the second semi-final. Then they got back on the plane, traversed the country once more for the win over the Dockers.
It has been a far more taxing Grand Final build-up for the Hawks than the previous four in the Alastair Clarkson era and at this stage the predicted 28 degree weather on Saturday, which would make it one of the warmest Grand Finals on record, might suit the more rested Eagles better.
On the other hand, the Hawks are done with airports, airplanes and travel. The Eagles have it all ahead of them, for the first time in more than a month and only the third time in 10 weeks.
The major tactical takeaway from the qualifying final was the outstanding job the Eagles did in preventing the Hawks from taking uncontested marks and therefore using their elite foot skills. They pressured the Hawks into all manner of unforced errors.
But the MCG, where the Eagles have played just once this year and only three times in Adam Simpson's time as coach, is 19 metres wider. Hawthorn, 7-0 in finals there since losing the 2012 Grand Final, knows every blade of grass, every puff of wind at the venerable stadium and that will count for plenty on Saturday. West Coast will have to work that much harder to shut the Hawks down in the manner it did two weeks ago.
Will there be a hard-luck Hawthorn selection story?
The Hawks are not Robinson Crusoe in this department of course, but they have been making tough Grand Final selections since their first one in 1961, when John Kennedy snr left out his banjo-playing best mate, back-pocket Roy Simmons for Reg Poole.
Peter Crimmins, Shane Murphy, Kelvin Moore, David Polkinghorne, Tom Murphy and Jonathon Ceglar are among the other hard-luck selection stories at Hawthorn over the journey around Grand Final time.
This year's intrigue surrounds Jack Gunston, who hasn't played since twisting his ankle in the West Coast defeat a fortnight ago.
With 53 goals, he remains Hawthorn's leading goalkicker. And despite a broken finger and some resultant problems with his ball-drop, he came good late in the season.
The Hawks didn't muck around last week. Gunston was ruled out of the Fremantle game 48 hours before, saying that he hadn’t progressed past the stage of straight-line running.
In 2015, Ryan Schoenmakers has been a swingman, playing forward and back as required and has been in and out of the side. But he did OK against Adelaide in the semi-final and was really good against Fremantle, particularly in the first half against the Dockers, in which he kicked two goals.
It would be wonderful for him and the club, if he, too, could win a premiership medal.
Will the midfield maestros play on each other?
They might not necessarily stand each other through the afternoon, but if you're a fan of great midfielders, then watching Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis strut their stuff on the same patch of grass only adds to the attraction of this Grand Final.
The ageless Mitchell is averaging 31 disposals, 5.4 clearances and 3.4 stoppages this season. He has clearly been Hawthorn's best player through the finals and the most consistent through the season. He will poll well on Monday night during the Brownlow Medal count and is a strong chance to win his fifth Peter Crimmins Medal.
Priddis won the Brownlow last year and will go awfully close to claiming it again this year.
West Coast has a fantastic midfield, but Priddis dominates all the key categories with 30 disposals, 7.7 clearances and 4.6 stoppages a game.
Neither player will cop a hard tag. The Hawks are more likely to put time into Andrew Gaff or Chris Masten. Scott Selwood didn't play in the preliminary final, but will he return to sit on Mitchell?
Give Mitchell time and space and he will tear the opposition to shreds. The Dockers, for all their defensive expertise, didn't attempt to shut him down. And for considerable periods, he cut them to shreds.
Priddis just has this enormous appetite for the ball and for hard work. He was one of several Eagles who lifted in the second half on Saturday night and his lovely shimmy and snap goal early on that finally put the Eagles in front.
The Master or the Pupil?
Clarkson became the first of Denis Pagan's protégés to win a premiership as coach, with the Hawks in 2008. John Longmire became the second in 2012 and now Simpson is aiming to become the third.
There's something about those old fibro shacks at Arden Street that breed coaching greatness.
Of greater relevance is the four years Simpson spent as an assistant to Clarkson at Hawthorn between 2010 and 2013, the period that bridged his time as a player and senior coach.
At the Hawks he worked with the midfielders and maintains some friendships with them. When asked why he was smiling so broadly during the national anthem ahead of the qualifying final, Isaac Smith suggested he was looking at his "good friend" Simpson and trying to get a reaction from him.
Simpson got the last laugh then. Saturday might well be a different story.
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