MELBOURNE have received good news ahead of their preliminary finals clash with Canberra at AAMI Park on Saturday night, with one of their powerhouse forwards cleared to take the field.

Lock Dale Finucane made it through the Storm’s captain’s run and will play.

Finucane suffered an ankle injury in the week one final against the Cowboys and had been in some doubt.

Craig Bellamy wrapped him in cotton wool and hadn’t trained with the squad all week until Friday.

Round 20

Watch every Finals game in September LIVE & ad-break free during play on FOX SPORTS. Get FOXTEL today with no lock-in contract & 1st month free! FIND OUT MORE!

“The Melbourne Storm have finished their captain’s run and Dale Finucane got through okay,” Fox Sports’ chief NRL reporter James Hooper told NRL Tonight on Friday.

“We know he came off in that final a couple of weeks ago against the North Queensland Cowboys with an ankle injury.

“But the good news is, he got through the captain’s run, he will take his place in the Melbourne side tomorrow.

“We expect them to be 1-17 against the Canberra Raiders.”

The Raiders are also expected to take the field as per program.

Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe joins Nathan Ryan, Ben Glover and Ben Ikin to discuss Jason Taylor’s future, the Robbie Farah drama, recruitment for 2017 and the direction the club is heading.

You can also subscribe via iTunes or for Android users, listen on the iPP Podcast Player app.

Read on below for updated late mail and a full preview of this weekend’s finals including talking points, the stats the matter and fearless predictions.

Melbourne Storm v Canberra Raiders, AAMI Park, 7.40pm (AEST) Saturday

Storm: 1 Cameron Munster 2 Suliasi Vunivalu 3 William Chambers 4 Cheyse Blair 5 Marika Koroibete 6 Blake Green 7 Cooper Cronk 8 Jesse Bromwich 9 Cameron Smith 10 Jordan McLean 11 Kevin Proctor 12 Tohu Harris 13 Dale Finucane. Interchange: 14 Kenneth Bromwich 15 Tim Glasby 16 Christian Welch 17 Ben Hampton 20 Matthew White 21 Felise Kaufusi

Raiders: 1 Jack Wighton 2 Edrick Lee 3 Jarrod Croker (c) 4 Joseph Leilua 5 Jordan Rapana 6 Blake Austin 7 Aidan Sezer 8 Junior Paulo 9 Josh Hodgson 10 Shannon Boyd 11 Josh Papalii 12 Elliot Whitehead 13 Iosia Soliola. Interchange: 14 Kurt Baptiste 15 Luke Bateman 16 Paul Vaughan 17 Joseph Tapine

The talking point: The best defensive side in the competition plays host to the best attacking side. So who prevails? The old saying is defence wins premierships, but the Raiders have proven impossible to stop at times this year. They ran in 22 points to beat the Storm in round 23, and will need to break the purple wall again to give themselves a chance on Saturday.

The odds (courtesy of TAB): Storm $1.42, Raiders $3

The Fox Sports Lab stat: Melbourne and Canberra have met twice in the finals, with Melbourne winning on both occasions; 24-10 in week 2 of the 1998 finals in Melbourne and 30-18 in week 1 of the 2003 finals.

Our prediction: The Storm in a low scoring affair.

Late Mail: Canberra duo Josh Hodgson (ankle) and Blake Austin (hand) have been cleared to play.

Melbourne lock Dale Finucane has been cleared to play after overcoming an ankle issue.

Matt White and Felise Kaufusi are expected to drop off the Melbourne bench.

These writers are on Twitter: @dan_walsh64 and @SimonBrunsdon

Download the newFOX SPORTS Appto get the latest news and scores from your NRL team.