HUGH McCluggage has turned himself from an erratic kick at goal to a reliable one as his brilliant career has worn on.

Despite having the weight of Brisbane's fortunes on his shoulders in the dying seconds of Saturday's epic preliminary final win over Hawthorn, the co-captain calmly slotted the go-ahead set shot from 25m on a slight angle.

Minutes earlier he had a similar equation with the same result. A tricky set shot to put his team in front and through it went.

Coming up clutch around goal wasn't always the calling card for the 28-year-old though.

"I didn't know whether to look or not, to be honest with you," coach Chris Fagan said in his post-match press conference.

"They're tricky shots."

Early in his career, to call McCluggage unreliable around the goals would be an understatement.

In his debut 2017 season, he kicked 8.15 from a wing, which was hardly a crime for a first-year player.

Skip forward a couple of years and things had not improved. In 2020 the former No.3 draft pick kicked 8.21 and in 2021 it was 15.22, with both set and general play shots proving problematic.

However, as statistics provided by Champion Data show, McCluggage turned a corner in 2022 – the fourth straight season he made the extended All-Australian squad without making the team.

For the first time in his career, his set shot marker hit 60 per cent. He's hit that in four of the past five years.

In good news for Brisbane entering Saturday's Grand Final against Fremantle, McCluggage is a perfect seven-for-seven in deciders over the past three years, kicking four straight in a dominant performance against Geelong 12 months ago.