The most eagerly awaited individual match-up of the season - the AFL's best forward Lance Franklin versus the league's premier defender Matthew Scarlett - may not yet eventuate in Friday night's Hawthorn-Geelong blockbuster at the MCG.
The Cats and the Hawks have not met for a staggering 15 months - since Round 4 last season in Tasmania - and this match marks the first time that Franklin and Scarlett have come up against each other since the man known as 'Buddy' has developed into the AFL's No.1 spearhead.
When they last met Franklin had played just 37 games and had only kicked a career total of 69 goals.
His corresponding numbers now are 198 goals from 72 games and after kicking a total of 73 goals last season (63 in the home-and-away season to place third in the race for the Coleman Medal) - the 21-year-old rising superstar has kicked 73 in just 16 games this season and is favourite to not only win his first Coleman Medal but to become the first player since Tony Lockett in 1998 to kick 100 goals in the home and away season.
But Scarlett - the three-time All-Australian full-back - has made a habit of destroying opposition forwards in recent years and such has been the defensive dominance of the Cats in recent weeks that no team has scored more than 70 points against them in the past five matches.
However, Geelong coach Mark Thompson did his best to play down the prospect of a Scarlett-Franklin showdown on Wednesday saying any one of four players - the others being Andrew Mackie, Harry Taylor and Darren Milburn - could stand Buddy.
"Mackie has been outstanding on the bigger blokes and whether we play him on Franklin or not, we will have our final meeting tomorrow morning and work it out," Thompson said.
"We have also got Taylor, Scarlo and Milburn and the way the game is played now we need our guys to play on three or four different opponents on any given day - that is just called the flexibility of modern football."
Effectively Thompson was suggesting he could rotate his four best defenders around on Franklin to ensure the Hawks' ace is constantly up against a fresh opponent.
At the other end the Hawks have also made it tough for opposition teams to score this year through their zone defence or has it become known in AFL circles - 'Clarko's cluster'.
But