WHILE many things in footy are changing there are still many that stay the same.

The first week of the finals reinforced the traditional thinking that there are a couple of vital components that become increasingly critical under the extra pressure, intensity and tension of September action.

Success in finals football has always been enhanced enormously by winning in the ruck and having a quality power forward or two as targets for the pressured long kick into attack.

Having neither makes winning big finals very, very difficult. Good ruckmen and big marking forwards remain as foundation pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of putting together a premiership contender.

Adelaide's Ivan Maric is not yet an experienced or highly-regarded ruckman but last Friday opposed to Essendon's smaller part-time fill-ins, Cale Hooper and Nathan Lovett-Murray he had a picnic and was in total control of the stoppages.

Maric’s combination with Bernie Vince as his ground level target looked like a training drill where the opposition team's job is to apply only token pressure.

While there were Essendon players around the stoppage contest Maric and Vince looked like the Polly Farmer and Bill Goggin ruck to rover partnership of a distant era. The ruck to rover hit-out and clear take away into space has largely disappeared from modern footy.

With the mass of bodies around stoppages the first receiver at ground level usually has to hand ball as he is being tackled. Rarely do we see the first receiver accelerate away from the congestion and deliver an unpressured kick into his forward 50.

A Maric hit-out to a moving Vince enabled this to occur more last Friday night than I have seen over the whole season.

Adelaide eventually won comprehensively all over the field but the Maric performance started the rot and proved that getting thrashed in the ruck is a recipe for finals disaster.

Good news for the Magpie’s 204cm tall Cameron Wood. Preventing the Crows from dominating the hit-outs and clearances this week will be critical to Collingwood's chances. Picking Wood to support Josh Fraser would seem to be an essential selection to bolster their ruck height and competiveness.

In two of the other finals where teams were more evenly matched it was the goal-kicking, marking forwards that were the difference.

Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke got seven of St Kilda’s 12 goals and despite St Kilda’s dominance around midfield, they would not have beaten Collingwood without the contribution of their two power forwards.

Big ruckmen Steven King and Michael Gardiner did not overwhelm Fraser in the ruck contests but certainly had the hit-out advantage.

In Brisbane, the Lions had the Jonathan Brown/Daniel Bradshaw forward pairing and their nine match-winning goals, including four in the last quarter, who out-performed Carlton's Brendan Fevola and Cameron Cloke who got a combined five for the game.

Not an enormous difference in the ruck duels in this match either but in a tight finish the narrow Lions win came on the back of their two marking forwards making  a critical contribution.

Geelong's 14-point win over the Western Bulldogs was the exception, with no dominating ruckman on either side and Geelong's Cameron Mooney was the only player on the ground with claims to being a top notch power forward.

Mooney kicked a couple of the Cats 14-goal total but like the Bulldogs, who don’t have a big marking forward in their team, depend on a spread of medium sizes to accumulate a winning total.

This works fine in the home and away season. The Bulldogs were the highest scorers up until round 22 and Geelong was second.

So what does this proven finals formula of needing competitive, big ruckmen and quality marking targets mean?

St Kilda has good stocks in both of these important areas.

Geelong with Mooney, an underdone Brad Ottens and Mark Blake are useful if not outstanding.

The Lions with Brown and Bradshaw up forward and the Mitch Clark, Jared Brennan ruck combination doing very well look well equipped also.

The Bulldogs will need Dale Morris and Brian Lake to blunt the effectiveness of the Lions' high quality marking talls and for Ben Hudson and Will Minson to at least break even in the ruck. Only then can their deep pool of dangerous medium sizes become the winning difference.

Collingwood has Simon Prestigiacomo as a good match up on Adelaide's big forward Kurt Tippett. Fraser and Wood will give Maric genuine ruckmen to compete against.

Collingwood does not have an elite power forward but the Magpies, like the Bulldogs will look to their mediums to be their predominant scorers.

No one or two specifics will ever guarantee victory but winning in the ruck and having goal kicking big forwards has stood the test of time. They remain two important elements to winning in the intense heat and tension that is finals footy.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.