Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade does not believe his team will suffer under the weight of history on Saturday night as the Dogs prepare for their first grand final in 40 years.

The Bulldogs, whose one and only AFL premiership was in 1954 and who have lost six preliminary finals in the past 25 years including the past two, will take on St Kilda in the grand final of the pre-season competition on Saturday night in front of an expected sell-out crowd at Etihad Stadium.

It will be the club's first grand final of any description since winning the old night series at South Melbourne in 1970.

But Eade said the current players remained unconcerned or even daunted by the club's tortured history.

"This group is more about creating their own history and not looking back to the past," Eade said on Friday.

"You don't walk backwards into the future so we are worrying about what we have got control of and that is the way we are going about it."

Eade also denied the fact his team had not lifted a trophy for so long would give it added motivation against the Saints on Saturday night given that St Kilda has already won the NAB Cup twice in the last six years.

"Obviously St Kilda is a very professional unit and have been a proven finals performer so they will try to win and we are in the same boat so I don't think what has happened in the past has got anything to do with it," he said.

If the Bulldogs do win on Saturday night and lift their first piece of silverware in 40 years there will be plenty of sympathy for club captain and games record holder Brad Johnson who will be missing through injury after having waited for 16 years to play in a grand final for his beloved Bulldogs.

Instead it will be stand-in captain Daniel Giansiracusa who will lift the NAB Cup alongside Eade should the Dogs prevail.

"I haven't thought about it like that," Giansirascusa said on Friday when asked if he would feel almost guilty at holding aloft the NAB Cup while Johnson was standing on the sidelines.

Eade said Johnson, who is batting an Achilles injury, was coping well with missing out after waiting so long to play in a grand final of any kind for the Bulldogs.

"Brad is a pragmatic person, I think he is disappointed underneath that he is not playing but he has got the whole season ahead of him so he doesn't dwell on it too much and he is in a positive frame of mind," he said.