But that hasn’t inspired Dennington coach Ben Parkinson to deliver any emotion-fuelled pep talks this week.

The Dogs coach is keeping it as simple and familiar as possible ahead of today’s grand final against Kolora-Noorat.

The Power is a team which Dennington is not so familiar with, the sides having clashed only once this season — the Dogs losing by 37 points.

Parkinson is not fazed that he hasn’t faced the reigning premiers in more than two months. He also declared that his side would not take anything out of their encounter earlier this season, which was virtually played in a mud bath.

According to the forecast, torrential rain and gale-force winds were predicted to hit the south-west last night.

“I think everybody loves to play in the dry (but) the conditions shouldn’t be a worry for us because both sides have to play in it,” Parkinson said.

“We’ll just stick to what we’ve been working on all season.

“We can’t complain with how we’ve gone. To have one loss and one draw out of 19 games is pretty good.”

Parkinson hoped the week off would have his side refreshed.

“We hoped to take this path to the grand final,” he said.

“We don’t really have any injury concerns and we didn’t have to play every week like Panmure and Kolora-Noorat. We’d like to think that we’re a bit fresher than them.”

The Dogs have pinpointed the Power’s ball movement as its strength.

“We’re going to have to apply pressure right across the ground,” Parkinson said.

“It has to be from full-forward with Justin (Nowell) and Chris (Keilar) to our back six.”

The red and white’s back six has been a focus this season. “Last year we kicked the highest score for the year but we also had a high score kicked against us,” Parkinson said.

“This year we’ve had the most scores and been the best in defence in terms of scores against us. I think we’re playing more as a team.”

Parkinson thought that to league followers, Dennington would be favourite today after its dominant second semi-final performance.

“But we won’t be treating it like that,” he said.

“I don’t think there should be any real favouritism in a grand final. Both sides start the game on 0.0.”