JEREMY Cameron and Tom Lynch will trudge onto the MCG on Saturday with history beckoning.

Because of them playing the same position, being separated only six months in age and having entered the AFL just one year apart – Lynch first, in 2011 – they've been constantly compared.

Here they are again, at opposite ends of the ground, with major roles to play, yet never with the stakes so sky-high.

MATCH PREVIEW Tigers v Giants

Neither Giants enforcer Cameron, this season's Coleman medallist with 67 goals, nor Lynch has played in an AFL Grand Final.

A greater chance of being part of these occasions was the chief reason Lynch left the Gold Coast behind to take his All Australian talents to Tigerland, as Dion Prestia did before him.

After no finals in eight seasons at the Suns, Lynch will play in a Grand Final in his first at Richmond.

The Grand Final hasn't been a day for key forwards for many years, but one of these men might well establish himself as the game's preeminent focal point by Saturday's end.

Any such recognition would be them somewhat fulfilling their football destiny.

WHAT TIME DOES IT START? Everything you need to know about the Grand Final

Jonathan Brown and fellow AFL great Dermott Brereton, both multiple premiership-winning forwards, were united a few years back in their view on Lynch.

To them, the then-Suns star was not only the No.1 key forward in the sport but its best player.

Those comments came after Lynch tore the 2016 season apart, slamming through a career-best 66 goals and clutching 153 marks – almost half of which were inside 50 and contested.

Lynch's pack marking, on show in his spectacular five-goal, match-winning preliminary final performance at Geelong's expense, is his undoubted superpower.

Cameron, by contrast, is a death-by-a-thousand-cuts-type forward, or sometimes in one thunderous bump.

He got it horribly wrong in the match last year where he cannoned into an unsuspecting Harris Andrews, who was left concussed and with bleeding on the brain.

Cameron justifiably copped a five-match ban in the wake of that sickening incident.

Yet it's his throwback physicality, when utilised the right way, that is so universally admired, even within envious opposition clubs.

At the same time, where Lynch's ferocious marking is his strength, Cameron takes more grabs than anyone on the lead and is more feared than his Richmond counterpart when the ball hits the deck.

"Jeremy set the footy world alight with his ability to turn opponents inside out," Essendon's triple Coleman medallist Matthew Lloyd told AFL.com.au this week.

"He leads up the ground and turns back quicker than any defender, and he finds the goals in different ways, which is exceptional.

"What he's improved this year is bridging the gap between his best and worst days. You used to feel he was very hit or miss – and on his bad days, sometimes, he'd look disinterested."

How many goals will Cameron kick against Richmond?

Former Sydney defender Ted Richards, an All Australian himself, veteran of 261 games and a 2012 premiership player, would play Cameron from in front in a bid to counter that famed agility.

"Then he couldn't turn me around," Richards said.

"You don't have to worry about that with Lynch. He's not quite as agile but he's still very athletic and he's that big that he could very well be a ruckman.

"The main difference is Cameron is more dangerous on the ground and is freakish with his ability to create something out of nothing.

"Defenders panic more when the ball's in the air with Lynch, because they know how good he is and that he can jump higher than most of us."

Nine goals for Jeremy Cameron, all in under a minute! #AFLSunsGiants pic.twitter.com/IczHuXfxwJ

— AFL (@AFL) August 24, 2019

The Giant's greater consistency is illustrated in his numbers.

Cameron went goalless just twice this season and still kicked four behinds in both of those games, as well as having 27 disposals in one of them.

The boy from Dartmoor, barely inside the South Australian border in south-western Victoria, earned All Australian honours in just his second season back in 2013.

A young Cameron with his coach Leon Cameron after earning his first All Australian.

The praise deservedly flowed thick and fast.

Then-Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson called Cameron "scary", while his GWS coach at the time, Kevin Sheedy, dubbed him the second coming of Tigers and AFL legend Royce Hart.

It may have surprised Sanderson and Sheedy if they were told at the time that Cameron wouldn't be an All Australian again until six years later.

Cameron discussed in a 2017 interview with AFL.com.au the need to be "in the moment" more if he wanted to become one of the AFL's elite forwards.

A patchy finals record was another knock on him, but his growth was on display in the Giants' preliminary final triumph over Collingwood, opposed to a quality defender in Darcy Moore.

Cameron's two magnificent strikes from barely inside the boundary, about 50m out, at the MCG's city end stamped him as a man capable of stepping up when required.

His seasons between All Australian nods were certainly not bad, but these two guys – rightly or wrongly – are held to a higher standard.

Likewise, Brown and Brereton probably looked back a bit sheepishly in the past two years before this one about their bold calls on Lynch.

Lynch not only wrestled with playing for a poor side and carrying a debilitating posterior cruciate ligament injury that required surgery, but his impending free agency status became a hyper-focus by the end of 2017.

It wasn't something he handled well, especially as it became patently obvious he was headed elsewhere.

Lynch's last season at the Suns ended in ronud 14.

Lynch's post-operation recovery went deep into the pre-season for his new club but he somehow made it to the start line for round one this year.

The goals initially flowed, then dried up, as did his possessions.

Lloyd was among Lynch's most vocal critics, calling him a "liability" and comparing him unfavourably with, of course, Cameron.

The goalkicking legend admitted to AFL.com.au he was too harsh at the time and hadn't adequately factored in that Lynch was completing a pre-season on the run.

"Since about the halfway mark of the season, coinciding with Richmond winning 11 in a row, he's performing better with the team going better," Lloyd said.

"He's not wrestling as much because he's getting off his man, there's a bit more ping in his legs, and he's also applying much better defensive pressure."

Who would you choose?

All statistics are from 2019

Put on the spot to pick just one of Lynch or Cameron, Lloyd went the way of Brown and Brereton.

He fears for the GWS defence, wondering how they can possibly stop this 200cm man mountain, particularly if Phil Davis is hampered.

On the other hand, Richards – speaking like the defender he is – said it was the better midfield on the day that would determine whether Lynch or Cameron was more impactful.

"It'd be great to see a key forward kick five and go close to winning a Norm Smith," Lloyd said, speaking like the forward he is.

"I can't remember the last key forward to dominate on Grand Final day.

"(Lance) Franklin had a good Grand Final in a losing team (in 2014), Tom Hawkins was decent (in 2011) and Tom Boyd did some good things (in 2016), but they're few and far between."