Hugh McCluggage is adamant his Brisbane Lions have the scars to prove they can overcome their MCG history and a bleak head-to-head record to beat Geelong and reach a second-straight AFL grand final.
The Lions have won just six times and drawn once in 38 games at the MCG since losing the 2004 grand final.
A gutting four-point loss to Collingwood in last year's grand final remains fresh in the memory, with a brilliant early-season defeat of Melbourne at the venue offset by a one-point Magpies comeback win in the penultimate round.
Then there's Geelong, who are unbeaten in Victoria against the Lions since 2004, albeit only playing at the MCG twice since the Lions-Bears merger.
The Lions won their first 10 clashes between 1997-2003.
Geelong boast a 25-7 record since, including 40 and 71-point thumpings in preliminary finals in 2020 and 2022.
McCluggage, still coming to grips with his side's incredible semi-final comeback defeat of Greater Western Sydney, says those experiences have steeled them to correct the record.
"A lot," he said when asked how much has changed since their 2022 defeat.
"We’ve played in two more finals series. We’ve learned a lot, you can’t really substitute anything for experience in finals. It’s the most important thing.
"And we’ve been through lots of things.
"Even last year, we were in the grand final. It was a close game and we weren’t able to deliver - then this time (v Giants) we were able to do what we needed to in the last three or four minutes.
"Shut the game down. So hopefully we can draw on all of it and give it a good shake."
The Lions' MCG record has remained a sore point at the club but McCluggage said their performances over the last two seasons had proved their style of play can be successful there.
"It’s funny, I guess if you don’t play there a lot in front of big crowds then you don’t know what it’s like," he said.
"But I don’t think we can blame that on the way we played there, really it’s not that much different to the Gabba in terms of the size of the ground.
"We know that if we play our brand, we can play well there. We just weren’t doing that, so no doubt having played there in front of big crowds the last few years will help us."
