Those walking out onto the MCG on Saturday – every one of them a grand final debutant – will never have experienced anything like it

Through his 15-year career, Glenn Archer never felt secure in his own ability. Even in home and away games he would suffer from anxiety and nerves. He’d question whether he was good enough. It drove him.

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On the afternoon of 28 September 1996, he was good enough. More than that, in his first grand final he won the Norm Smith medal for best on ground after North Melbourne beat Sydney by 43 points. The fierceness of the game was the white-hot metal that Archer beat to forge his reputation as one of the most courageous footballers ever to play the game.

For Archer, the game was all there was and he hated the hype surrounding it. “I would’ve preferred it was just a normal week with 200 at training instead of thousands. But that’s all part of it and it’s great for the supporters,” says Archer now, in the week before Adelaide play Richmond in the 2017 grand final. “But as an individual player, you would rather it just be normal.”

Archer’s method of coping with the madness was to retreat inward and to visualise the game, placing himself in the moment as many times as he could in his own mind. He says coach Denis Pagan played an important role in getting the team’s anxiety levels right, ensuring that nobody would go over the top and do something stupid.

“Denis was the conductor. He played a part in helping me visualise not getting overawed and going too far over the line with my aggression.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Glenn Archer of the Kangaroos holds aloft the Norm Smith medal in 1996. Photograph: Getty Images

The Kangaroos had not been involved in the game’s final act for 18 years. The Swans had not played in a decider since “The Bloodbath” of 1945. From the two teams only Robert Scott, who was traded to North in 1994, had previous grand final experience as part of two losing Geelong sides.

As it was 21 years ago, this year’s teams are playing for a premiership after lengthy absences – 19 years for Adelaide and 35 for Richmond. But unlike 1996, not one player from either team has experienced what it is to play on the last Saturday in September. The last time this happened, Australia was a colony and Adelaide was two years away from street lighting.

While no player from either side understands what it is to play in a grand final, one benefit that Richmond may have is that they will be accustomed to the penetrating roar that can sweep the stadium on that last Saturday in September. “The noise last weekend with 90-odd thousand screaming lunatics will probably be louder than it will be this week,” says Archer.

“In 1996 the rooms were underneath the Great Southern Stand, so you couldn’t hear anything. You couldn’t get a sense of the noise. It wasn’t until I started walking up the race that I got a sense of it. The banner came up and the crowd started to scream. That noise is not something I’d heard before. It was deafening.”

And the noise is constant. It doesn’t stop. Archer remembers his team-mate Anthony Rock at the quarter-time huddle telling everyone to swivel their head left to right when they get the ball because the players couldn’t hear each other.

“That stuck with me. Every time I got the ball I started swivelling my head, just to make sure what was there as I used to be able to hear a voice.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The 1996 grand final between North Melbourne and Sydney at the MCG. Photograph: Getty Images

In Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean writes of a firefighter having the notion to kneel in the dry grass and set it ablaze. The idea was to get inside the burned area and let the main fire sweep past. Calling on his own experience, Archer believes the players that will best endure the scorching heat of a grand final are those who can get inside their own game in the first 10 minutes and let the intensity blow by.

“That’s your starting point, particularly mentally. You must be starting to visualise the one percenters – the first bump, the first tackle,” says Archer. “I know it’s a cliché, but the chasing and the tackling and the spoiling and running to put a shepherd on and that sort of stuff. If you get that part of your game right, your natural talent and the kicks, marks and handballs will come. But if you’re just worried about stats and not mentally prepared to absorb the pressure and to put immense pressure on, then you’ll set yourself up to fail.”

Very rarely does anyone get it right because it’s an entirely different experience Glenn Archer

Archer follows the commonly-held view that the most mistakes made in any game for the year is generally that first five or 10 minutes of a grand final. “There’s so much on the line and everyone goes in with that extra bit of hype, but it generally causes a lot of mistakes as you’re trying to get that anxiety level right. Very rarely does anyone get it right because it’s an entirely different experience.”

According to Archer, those players who are good with their pressure and tackling will best adapt and get into the game. For Adelaide, this means players such as Daniel Talia should prosper early. In last year’s semi-final loss to Sydney, he acknowledged that it was “winning the little contests” that let the Crows down. This year Talia averages nearly 10 one percenters a game, more than any other player, barring his counterpart at Richmond, Alex Rance. Last week the leader of the Tigers’ rolling defence had a dozen one percenters, the most by any player across preliminary final weekend. The second most? Talia with 10. As key defenders, you would expect both men to be called upon early to help establish a tempo for their respective teams.

“Your focus is to try and win that first contest and get your confidence up,” says Archer. “Confidence is such an important part of our game. If you get your confidence up, and your opponent’s down, it’s very hard to bridge that gap. Beat your opponent in your first three or four contests, particularly as a defender, and you’ve got him on the back foot.”

But the temperature is perhaps hottest at its ignition point in the middle of the ground, where the importance of clearances is amplified early as players find themselves starved of time and space. “You get the ball and someone’s on you,” says Archer. “There’s a lot of hack kicks out of stoppages as there’s so much pressure on you to get rid of the ball.”

It is here the reckless control and ferocity of the resurgent Dustin Martin ought to come into play. The aesthetics of his signature “don’t argue” aside, Martin’s ability to win his own ball and clear it will be critical in establishing an impetus for Richmond. This year he has won more contested ball and cleared it more than anyone who will be involved in this year’s decider.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trent Cotchin has been cleared to play on Saturday, to the relief of Tigers’ fans. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

Trent Cotchin, whose aggression has already been a talking point this week, will also be central to the Tigers’ chances. In what was up until now the most important game of his life, the Richmond captain last week willed his side to a win with 17 contested possessions and seven clearances. But as a team, nobody wins the hard ball more than Adelaide, who also betters their grand final opponent in clearances. On Saturday they will again be led by Rory Sloane and the consistent Crouches, Brad and Matt. The three are among the top 20 in the league for both categories and will be decisive in the Crows’ hunt for the flag.

The Crows’ midfielders are well served by the league’s best tap ruckman, Sam “Sauce” Jacobs, who beat All-Australian ruckman Paddy Ryder in all meaningful stats bar two. Jacobs has been an inspiration to his team-mates this September, and was close to best on ground in the qualifying final, played the night before his brothers’ funeral. His is a resilience wound through a Crows team bound by tragedy.

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While not a dominant tap ruckman by any statistical reading, Jacobs’ opponent Toby Nankervis is conceivably the recruit of the year. Traded in for pick 46, the importance of the 6ft5in 23-year old has been evident in each final of Richmond’s campaign. The players rested on the bench once the matches were in the Tigers’ keeping have been Martin, Cotchin, Rance and… Nankervis. During the week, Nankervis admitted his game is a simple one, it’s about creating a contest and then to “get after it on the ground”. His approach lends itself to Archer’s theory on those who will cope with the pressure of a premiership decider the best. Only two ruckmen in the competition have laid more tackles this year, and only two have outworked Nankervis with one percenters.

But ultimately everyone must play their part. “If each individual doesn’t get their mindset right, and doesn’t mentally prepare, you’re in a fair bit of trouble,” says Archer. “If it somehow creeps into your mind that if you don’t go for one contest it’s OK, then you’re in trouble as every contest counts. If you put in a soft effort and it costs the team a goal in a close game, that one effort can completely undo the 40 efforts before that.”

Mental preparation is the motif that Archer returns to again and again. He believes it is why some players thrive on the big stage while others stumble. “It’s obviously a mental thing, you don’t physically change over a couple of weeks.”

Boiled to its irreducible core, Archer’s advice for the 44 young men on Saturday is simply “to go”.

“When it’s your turn to go, you go. If you prepare for that, the rest will fall into place.”