Carlton hosts Brisbane in a NAB Cup Grand Final rematch at Telstra Dome on Saturday night. With both clubs with a 2-2 win-loss ratio, assistant coach Brett Ratten takes a look at how the sides will match up

LESSONS FROM LAST WEEK

When you play what probably is the best team in the competition, I think you get a lesson on how to play all facets of the game. Our forwards spoke about how well West Coast’s backs covered for each other, while our backs spoke about how hard West Coast’s forwards worked.

OUR BACKS

Brisbane rely on Jonathan Brown, so we must make sure we have a focus on him like most teams do. We have the flexibility of playing Lance down back like we did last week, or we can move Jarrad Waite from forward to back. We must make sure we have enough close-attention players in there and we also know we have to create a bit of run as well.

THEIR FORWARDS

Last week Brown kicked a lot of points and will be trying to make amends. The other one for them is Ashley McGrath who has already kicked nine goals this year and has been a very important player for them.

MIDFIELD BATTLE

Brisbane showed in the pre-season that their young guys like Michael Rischitelli are really emerging as good players. We are sort of in a similar vein with young Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs. Of course, Simon Black and All-Australian player Luke Power are obviously players we are going to have to watch as well.

THE RUCK DUEL

Our blokes have done a fair job over the last four weeks. As for Brisbane, Jamie Charman has not played much footy but is a bash-and-crash ruckman that can have an influence on the game from a physical point of view, so we need to match him. If you win clearances and hit-outs, and you start to get the game on your terms from the stoppages, you can have a fair say in it.

THEIR BACKS

I think Daniel Merrett has been doing a really good job of negating the elite players of the competition. He is honest, quite quick for a big bloke off the mark and seems to always be around his opponent and not give them any time and space, which is what good full backs do. He has filled the hole left by Mal Michael and I think he is going to be a good player of the future.

OUR FORWARDS

Before last week we had been fairly good. Against Richmond we had 40 shots at goal and against Essendon we had about 35 shots. So our efficiency when we get it in the forward line is very good. It’s just sometimes we are not getting it in there enough and sometimes we lack accuracy.