Reigning premiers Hawthorn say they have the arsenal to bring down Sydney’s high-flying attack, led by their former AFL team-mate Lance Franklin.

The competition’s two best teams will line up in the grand final on Saturday at the MCG, with the spotlight on Franklin up against his old side.

It comes two years after Sydney beat Hawthorn, then featuring Franklin, in an all-time classic grand final.

Hawks defender Brian Lake said his side would go into the title decider confident they could stop Sydney.

He also felt the Hawks had plenty of weapons of their own to return fire.

“We’re pretty confident that we’ve got the arsenal in the backline to cover their talls but also provide run which is vital to the way we want to play,” Lake said following their last-ditch preliminary final win over Port Adelaide.

“We’ve got guys who are pretty good kicks in defence and we look at that as a big weapon for our side.”

Lake is another high-profile player to change clubs.

Last year, he won the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in the grand final win over Fremantle after switching from the Western Bulldogs.

Key forward Jarryd Roughead, who booted six goals against Port in his best finals performance, is another player crucial to Hawthorn’s chances.

“It was nice to get on the end of a few … I haven’t been lucky enough to kick that amount of goals in a final before,” Roughead said on Sunday.

“In a game where it was close, to be able to contribute like that was very good.”

Through injury and suspension, Lake missed the meetings with the Swans this season.

The Hawks lost to Sydney in round eight, but won their round 18 clash at the MCG by 10 points.

Hawthorn will start the grand final as underdogs after Sydney monstered North Melbourne in the other preliminary final, with Franklin kicking five.

“We had a tough game obviously against Port but we look at that as a positive,” Lake said.

“We can still have the composure under a lot of pressure and come out the other side.

“It’s going to be enjoyable being underdog and hopefully a bit more pressure goes on Sydney.”

Lake said it would depend on how the Hawks structured their defence whether he would play on Franklin or Kurt Tippett.

The 32-year-old likened the Sydney forward line to that of the three-peat Brisbane teams of 2001-03.

“I remember Brisbane in the early 2000s were pretty good with (Alastair) Lynch and (Jonathan) Brown,” he said.

“They were never easy, but they probably weren’t as dynamic as a Buddy Franklin and there’s the size of Tippett as well because he’s a big lad.”