Geelong speedster Isaac Smith says the premiership race is wide open this September but he does concede that the Cats have set themselves up nicely off the back off a 13 game winning streak that began back in mid-May.

Geelong are the sixth team in V/AFL history to go into a finals series having won at least 13 of their previous contests, but the weekend’s opponents will stride onto the MCG with a nice little streak of their own, having won 12 of their last 13 games.

Smith says history counts for little once the ball is bounced on Saturday afternoon.

“There are eight teams in it and there are eight teams can win it," he told SEN this week. 

“We've been fortunate enough that our last 13/14 weeks of footy have been really consistent and it feels like we've been improving incrementally along the way. We've worked on certain areas and that's certainly come to fruition, which has been fantastic. 

“But there's a line in the sand when Round 23 finishes and all eight teams have time to set, injuries get time to heal and recover, you get a little bit more planning in how you want to approach the next month of football. 

“It's a very even playing field and we're really looking forward to the opportunity, we think we're in a great spot.”

Aside from Geelong, Collingwood are the form team in the competition, a side particularly battle-hardened after nine of their last 12 games have been decided by seven points or less, but the Cats according to Smith, will be ready.  

“We've been doing our due diligence,” he said. 

“They've been playing fantastic football and I think credit goes to their players, but what their coaching staff has been implementing has obviously been working and the mentality they're taking certainly into second halves of games is a real positive for them, so it's going to be hard to shut them down but hopefully we're able to get our team defence up and going and get on top.”

The first bounce of the 2022 First Qualifying Final will be at 4.35 this Saturday afternoon at the MCG.