With the possible exception of Geelong defender Harry Taylor, no player will face a tougher task in Saturday's AFL grand final than St Kilda tagger Clinton Jones.

In a premiership decider being billed as the battle between All Australian captain and Saints skipper and inspirational centre-half-forward Nick Riewoldt and Geelong's Brownlow Medal winner and the AFL's No.1 player in Gary Ablett - it will be Taylor and Jones who will face the unenviable tasks of trying to shut down the pair on Saturday.

And whoever performs that task better could well win the premiership for their respective side as the Saints aim to end a 43-year premiership drought and win only their second flag ever while the Cats are aiming for a second flag in three years after ending their own 44-year premiership drought in 2007.

Jones, who will play his 50th AFL game on Saturday, has been a revelation the past two seasons and is one of the key factors behind the Saints' stunning improvement this year given his ability to continually shut down the best player from the opposing team.

There was no better evidence of that this season than when he kept Collingwood danger man Alan Didak to just 13 touches - half his season's average - in the qualifying final while he has already played on Ablett once this season when he kept him to 27 touches and two goals in the Saints' epic one-goal win in Round 14 at Etihad Stadium in a clash between what was then the competition's two unbeaten teams.

Now while that might sound like a victory for Ablett over Jones, in fact it could well be interpreted as the other way around considering the Cats superstar is averaging over 34 possessions per game this season and when allowed to totally dominate is simply unstoppable such as when he had 46 touches and kicked three goals against Adelaide in Round 4.

And the Saints know that if Jones can keep Ablett to the same kind of impact he had in Round 14 on Saturday then they will go a long way towards winning their first flag since 1966.

Jones, who made it to the AFL the hard way after being recruited to the Saints as a mature age rookie at the age of 22 from South Fremantle and up until the start of last season had played just six games, insists he is not daunted at the huge assignment facing him on Saturday.

"I will prepare no different (to play on Ablett in a grand final) as I would for any other player," Jones said.

"He is a fantastic player but I will watch the vision (of Ablett) from the last couple of weeks and see how he goes about it and try to do my best."

Jones, who is actually three months older than his fellow 25-year-old in Ablett, says he will be heavily reliant on his team-mates to help him curb Ablett's influence just as he knows the Cats players will be doing everything they can to help Ablett find space and wreak havoc.

"I have had plenty of support from my team-mates the last couple of weeks and I know I will get that again," he said.

"But it's the same with everyone you tag - the good players (from the opposition) try to free them up and help them break the tag and I'm pretty sure that will happen as well."

Jones said he has gained plenty of confidence from his many successful stopping jobs on some of the game's elite this year but knows playing on Ablett in a grand final represents the toughest challenge of all.

"He is a very good player who runs hard, works hard and is good around stoppages so we will have to pay him close attention," the quietly spoken Jones said in one of the game's great understatements.

As for how he will sleep between now and game day, knowing the huge pressure he will be under to curb the AFL's best player in a grand final, Jones insists he will be just fine.

"I just try and prepare the same each week, stick to the same routine and I like getting to the game early and concentrating on the game and the job I have to do."

"I try to get all of my preparation out of the way early in the week and then relax leading up to the game and then on game day switch on and know what I have to do and get it done."

And if Jones can do exactly that this week then the man who looks like he would be at home on the surf beaches of Perth rather than at the MCG will have gone a long way towards helping the Saints end their premiership drought.