I'm nervous because of history, not a lack of confidence in this team

Points about the Grand Final

1) This is the best Collingwood team I've seen in my lifetime. It is incredibly even, but also very skilled. Players like Tarkyn Lockyer, Josh Fraser, Shane O'Bree, Paul Medhurst, Nathan Brown and Tyson Goldsack would be in the first 22 of many other clubs. They aren't even in the team for Saturday. Not because they're too old or bad players. It's because they're skill levels are not quite good enough. It's a good thing to know that the 22 players in the team are better, because the guys who are left out are great.

2) The game plan has taken three years to come together. It's why other clubs may find it tough to catch up to Collingwood and St Kilda in this. The players have committed to it. The game plan means everyone plays a role, and doesn't play for stats. Geelong coach Mark Thompson said he tried to introduce something similar, but his players wouldn't go along with it. They liked how they were playing. Fair enough, it worked beautifully - but it doesn't cut it anymore.

3) Darren Jolly and Luke Ball have been huge additions. Jolly is a dominant ruckman. One of the top 5 in the AFL. Ball... is at the bottom of every pack. He's added a hardness that has allowed the Pies to give Dane Swan the ball more often. He used to go looking for it - now Ball gives it to him, and he uses it well. Steele Sidebottom, Dayne Beams, Chris 'Early' Dawes, Brent Macaffer and Sharrod Wellingham have improved tremendously too. Collingwood's improvement has come from those recruits, young players getting significantly better, and everyone committing to the game plan.

4) I don't understand the hatred for Collingwood out there. If we had been dominantly successful, then fair enough. But we haven't been that since the 1950s. We've won one premiership since 1958. We're not the freaking Yankees or Lakers or Manchester United. All anyone alive today can remember is Collingwood losing grand finals. Hardly something to build hatred on. It would be like hating Swindon Town for all the success they had in the 1910s.

Perhaps it's the arrogance? That was definitely a factor. But supporters today don't have the arrogance that they did. Carlton supporters are more arrogant. Try talking to a Geelong supporter!! They think they're freaking God's Gift to Football. What with "the way it's meant to be played" and the recruiting of a bunch of nice blokes who happen to be amazingly talented on the field and humble off it. So Collingwood is not nearly as arrogant as other clubs.

Yes, we do have a working class supporter base. And in the past, that has meant racism. Obviously we weren't the only club with racist supporters, but we were the best-supported club, so we probably had more of them. That's all changed now. Eddie McGuire has overseen a cultural change at the club. It's still got working class roots - but the positive aspects of those are to the forefront now, not the negative ones.

Perhaps it's Eddie? He is everywhere. But he's a passionate bloke who came from a poor background who has made his own way in the world. It's a really good story. A positive story. Broadmeadows boy made good. So maybe people hate him because he's been successful? And because he passionately supports a football club? It can't be that, because millions of other Australians support teams with one eye removed.

So I'm not entirely sure why people hate Collingwood. I think it's just that people are expected to hate them. So they do. Logic is not a part of the decision. Emotion is not part of the decision. Expectation is.

5) I wouldn't begrudge St Kilda a victory. I have a soft spot for them. They've been through a lot of heartache, and I really like Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo and Brendan Goddard. But if they win, it'll be because we lost it. I think Collingwood's best is better than St Kilda's best. If St Kilda win, it will be like Hawthorn in 2008. Geelong had the better team, but they bottled it on the day.

6) Collingwood by 40 points.