HEADING into Saturday's season decider, just 38 players have been part of four premiership teams in VFL/AFL history.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
IF Hawthorn are successful against West Coast, Grant Birchall and six of his teammates will boost that group.
Those other Hawks will be Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli and Shaun Burgoyne, with Burgoyne winning one of his trio at Port Adelaide.
Saturday will be Birchall's fifth grand final, having won premierships in 2008, 2013 and 2014 and missing out in 2012.
The Devonport defender has been a dominant feature in Hawthorn's flag wins during that time, with 25 touches and seven marks against Sydney last year, 26 touches and 11 marks against Fremantle in 2013 and in the 2008 victory over Geelong, he collected 23 touches and 12 marks.
In 2012, the Swans restricted his run from defence, and kept him to just 14 possessions and four marks, something that West Coast will be hoping to replicate.
The Eagles were able to do this in the opening match of this year's finals series, and kept the Tasmanian to 19 possessions which lacked impact.
Birchall has bounced back since then with two strong finals, providing plenty of dash.
In Hawthorn's preliminary final win over Fremantle, he collected 22 touches (18 uncontested) at 86.4 per cent disposal efficiency, took nine marks and had one score involvement starting off half-back.
Twenty of Birchall's 215 games have been in finals, for 15 wins where he averages 22 possessions and seven marks a games.
He has played 21 games this season averaging 23 touches and six marks.
During the home and away season he was 16th in the league for uncontested possessions per game (17.44), 14th in effective disposal percentage (85.3) and 18th in effective disposals per game (19.61).
In his career against West Coast, Birchall has played 13 matches for nine wins, and he averages 23 possessions a match against the West Australians.
He also enjoys a goal against the Eagles, kicking eight of his 30 career majors against them.
Birchall is once again the last Tasmanian standing in the AFL, with Ben Brown for the second year in a row falling at the preliminary final stage.
The Devonport forward-ruckman had two horrific moments in North Melbourne's loss to the Eagles, missing an easy handball to Shaun Higgins who was streaming towards goal and dropped an uncontested mark when 35 meters out from goal.
While he did some nice things, including a nice set shot in the first term and strong mark against three Eagles in the third, those moments and other marks that did not stick will haunt the 22-year-old.
Brown finished with 1.1 from 10 touches and four marks, often playing on smaller opponents like Brad Sheppard.
He kicked 30.17 from 22 games, averaging 10 touches and five marks a game.
But Brown managed just 3.2 and six marks in his three finals.