Collingwood’s Jordan Membrey is tackled by Jenna Bruton during the Pies’ Round 4 win over the Roos. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The weather forecast calls for an unseasonably hot Saturday afternoon in Melbourne, which will be fitting for sides with a bit of animosity toward each other as the AFLW finals battle begins.

Remember the lively stoush a few weeks back in Fremantle between Dockers’ forwards Roxy Roux and Gemma Houghton and Demons’ defenders Libby Burch and Maddie Gay in a Melbourne upset win?

What about an ex-Pie Jasmine Garner last year sealing a heartbreaking Collingwood semi-final loss for her new club, North Melbourne, with a match-saving mark in defence?

While the four foes battle it out, minor premier Adelaide gets a rest, awaiting the winner of Melbourne-Fremantle, while No. 2 seed Brisbane also has the week off, and will host the victor of the Collingwood-North Melbourne clash.

Time for four sides to put up or shut up, to go hard or go home.

MELBOURNE v FREMANTLE (Saturday 12.05 pm, Casey Fields)

How hellish have the Demons made their home ground for opponents? So much so that they went undefeated there this year and dropped only one game at Casey Fields in 2020.

Melbourne also is the hottest of the six finalists, having reeled off four straight wins, while Fremantle is the coldest, suffering two consecutive losses.

The Dockers have been weighed down all season by sluggish starts, going goalless in seven of their nine home-and-away matches, and being on the back foot finally caught up with them in matches against quality opposition.

Expect the Dees to be dominant in the ruck, with all-Australian Lauren Pearce not only winning hit-out counts, but racking up ridiculous possession counts.

With Pearce effectively an extra midfielder, it bolsters an already solid core with Karen Paxman and Eliza McNamara. Freo will counter with recently-crowned AFL Coaches Association award winner Kiara Bowers and the emerging Hayley Miller.

In light of its recent struggles, might Fremantle senior coach Trent Cooper be tempted to move the magnets, as other coaches have done, with success?

Perhaps throwing 2021 all-Australian Houghton into the ruck more and shifting ruck Mim Strom up forward, or running oddly quiet small forward Sabreena Duffy through the middle to get her hands on the ball more might put a jolt into the line-up? If hardened midfielder Katie-Jayne Grieve is back in the team, might Cooper send her to tag Paxman?

The Dees, who upset the Dockers at home in round eight, frustrating them by putting extra numbers behind the ball to deny their forwards supply and scoring shots – will be without injured stalwart Daisy Pearce, who senior coach Mick Stinear recently shifted forward from the midfield, but their forward line has been potent anyway of late.

Whenever All-Australian Kate Hore has been quiet, Shelly Scott has stepped up. Make no mistake, it’s gut-check time for the Dockers. They’ve recently played like a classroom’s star student who just now is paying the price for procrastination before a big test.

Now, as Fremantle sits for a final exam, it will be ready. Look for recent trends to reverse. The Dees can’t stay this hot and the Dockers can’t stay this cold. Look for the Dockers to buck trends, hit the scoreboard early, and topple the Dees on their home ground.

GIL TIPS: Fremantle

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COLLINGWOOD v NORTH MELBOURNE (Saturday 2.10 pm, Victoria Park)

Expect plenty of spice here. North will try to avenge a round four humiliation by Collingwood, while the Pies try to do what they couldn’t last year — beat the Roos with everything on the line.

In that 2020 semi-final, these two sides played one of the most thrilling matches in AFLW history, with the Roos edging the Pies by two points. With just 15 seconds left in the match, Magpie-turned-Roo Garner outmarked Pies’ ruck Sharni Norder and snuffed out Collingwood’s last hope.

This year against the Pies, North went goalless for the first time in its history, despite comfortably winning the inside 50 count, taking more marks in its forward end and winning a heap of free kicks.

The Pies’ “big three”, 2021 All-Australian midfielders Brianna Davey, Jaimee Lambert and Britt Bonnici, all ran rampant, and crumbing forwards Aishling Sheridan and Chloe Molloy each kicked goals.

Collingwood loves to run and carry and executed its patented, slick handball chains with relative ease. North must now shut that down – but it won’t have the narrow ground advantage the Crows used last weekend to box the Pies in.

The Roos will greatly benefit from having recently-suspended Jenna Bruton back in their midfield, joining 2021 All-Australians Garner, Emma Kearney, and Ashleigh Riddell.

While Collingwood has the higher seed and marginally better home-and-away record, the two sides are actually far closer to even, and North has been in better recent form.

Nothing quite ratchets up the adrenaline like a club painted into a corner and forced to fight its way out, which is what the Roos did last week, pipping the Dockers by one point and booking a finals ticket.

The Pies, meanwhile, have lost two of their last three games – to the teams immediately above them, Brisbane and Adelaide.

The Roos, when they kick straight, can run up a big score. If they were halfway accurate in their earlier showdown with the Pies, they might even have won. And these Roos have handled the Pies in finals before, so they won’t at all be intimidated and may well pull off the upset away from home.

GIL TIPS: North Melbourne