WHEN opposition teams sit down and start planning to take on the Sydney Swans, finding a way to stop Adam Goodes is one of their first and most important tasks.
It's a similar situation with Matthew Pavlich when clubs prepare to battle Fremantle.
The highly-skilled veterans are a similar size, with Goodes standing 194cm and weighing 99kg and Pavlich at 192cm and 100kg, and are a nightmare match-up for most clubs.
Swans coach John Longmire has at least come up with his best solution: pitting the two champions and club captains against each other when the teams meet at the SCG on Sunday.
"The problem when you're playing a Pavlich is finding someone who's a similar size to him and I guess teams have the same problem looking at Adam Goodes," Longmire said on Friday.
"There's not too many blokes physically that can match them and we get an opportunity this week to see two of them in the middle of the ground.
"I'm certain at different times we'll see that match-up.
"There's not going to be two better match-ups than Pavlich versus Goodes. I'd expect a fierce contested game of footy, but there's some individual match-ups that are super exciting.
"Goodes and Pavlich are two of the most damaging big men in the competition and quite unique with how they play their game.
"There's a big chance they'll be going head to head at times this week."
Pavlich has copped some flak at times for his inconsistent form in 2011, but Swans defender Tadhg Kennelly expects the Freo skipper's best on Sunday.
"You look at all the stats for Fremantle and Pav is up there," Kennelly said.
"A lot of people in the media have said he hasn’t had a great year and he's been up and down, but a not-great year for Pav is still a great year by a lot of players.
"He seems to be coming back into form and putting him around the ball, he's a strong body and he's very smart, so he's getting more involved and we expect that here at the SCG."
FACTBOX ON ADAM GOODES AND MATTHEW PAVLICH
ADAM GOODES
Age: 31.
Height: 194cm.
Weight: 99kg
Games: 291.
Career Goals: 333.
Honours:
Brownlow Medals: 2 (2003, 2006).
All Australian: 3 (2003, 2006, 2009).
Premiership: 1 (2005).
Best and Fairest: 2 (2003, 2006).
Indigenous Team of the Century.
AFL Rising Star 1999.
MATTHEW PAVLICH
Age: 29.
Height: 192cm.
Weight: 100kg.
Games: 250.
Career goals: 486.
Honours:
All Australian: 6 (2002, 2003, 2005-2008).
Best and Fairest: 5 (2002, 2005-2008).
Club leading goal-kicker: 5 (2001, 2005-2008).
International Rules series: 2 (2002, 2003).
AFL Rising Star nominee 2000.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs.
