MELBOURNE Victory defender Rody Vargas says his team of conquerors relish being tagged clear favourites for the Championship.
Melbourne go into their second Grand Final meeting in three seasons with Victory having beaten the Reds in all five meetings this season - including a 6-0 aggregate demolition in the major semi-final a fortnight ago (although Adelaide did beat Melbourne in a pre-season game prior to the start of the home and away season).
While Adelaide recorded a 1-0 win over Queensland in the preliminary final, Melbourne were enjoying the luxury of a week off and will have home advantage on Saturday with more than 45,000 Victory fans expected to pack the Dome hoping to see a repeat of Melbourne's 6-0 massacre of Adelaide in the 2006/07 grand final.
Despite all the pressure apparently on Melbourne - especially after the Reds appeared to self-destruct with coach Aurelio Vidmar's infamous 'pissant' outburst - Vargas says the players are taking it all in their stride.
"Everyone has been talking about Melbourne this and Melbourne that but we enjoy the pressure (of being expected to win) at our club - we thrive on it," said Vargas.
"We love to play under pressure and you want to play in the big games and we would rather be playing in front of a packed stadium under pressure than in a no pressure game."
Vargas said the fact that nearly half the side that will play this weekend were also part of the 2006/07 grand final team would also ensure Melbourne would not be complacent..
"The boys are very confident, we have been planning for the final and not even knowing who we were playing (before the result of the preliminary final was known) has not really had an affect on us," he said.
"Everyone is fit and ready to go so things are looking good for us."
However while Adelaide were all but written off following their semi-final loss to Melbourne, Vargas was not surprised to see the Reds bounce back and beat Queensland to reach their second Grand Final in three years.
He added: "Any team that makes the Grand Final deserves to be there so it will be a cracking final on Saturday.
"Adelaide have a lot of character in the side and they obviously have a lot of fighting spirit so I wasn't surprised at all that they got through to the grand final.
"I guess we are going to have confidence knowing we have played them a few times and come out with victories but we have spoken about this a few times and (coach) Ernie (Merrick) addressed it again this morning, saying complacency is the only thing that can have a negative affect on us."
With that in mind Vargas dismissed any suggestions of Melbourne repeating either their 6-0 semi-final demolition or 6-0 grand final rout of Adelaide two years ago.
"Whether we win 1-0 or on penalties or with a last minute goal, all that matters at the end of the day to Melbourne Victory and our fans is we get a win," he said.
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