The last time the GIANTS took on a powerful Victorian club in a preliminary final at the MCG, the night ended in heartbreak.
However, they hold no fears about heading back to the venue for Saturday's clash with Collingwood, and rather than being haunted by the past, they intend on using it as inspiration.
It was 2017 when the GIANTS took on Richmond in front of almost 95,000 fans, the majority of them in yellow and black, but went down by 36 points in the club's second-straight prelim defeat.
Far from disgraced, the GIANTS trailed by a solitary point at half-time after they lost star midfielder Dylan Shiel in the opening term to a controversial Trent Cotchin bump.
Richmond kicked away with a dominant second half and the following week, won a long-awaited flag.
Star GIANT Josh Kelly had 28 possessions, eight tackles, eight inside 50s, six clearances and a goal in the loss, and said his team wouldn't be dwelling on the result, or any other past disappointments, ahead of this week's match-up with the 'Pies.
"That day we didn't get the result we wanted, but that whole atmosphere is something I think we need to use to spur us on," he said.
"We understand the crowd (noise) isn't going to be in our favour (this week) but that's all part of it.
"It's an exciting prospect going down to the MCG and playing a final.
"It's a different feeling this time because we've been there and we understand what it means.
"The experience of playing in previous finals is something you can't buy.
"Playing in those games and those big moments is something we can take a bit of confidence in.
"We need to tighten the screws on a few things and learn from previous finals experiences and use that in our favour.
"The momentum we've built over the last few rounds has put us in a good position, and we feel like we're hitting our strides at the right time.
"We also understand that preliminary finals are heated because there's so much on the line."
Kelly said the GIANTS learnt plenty from their thrilling three-point victory over Brisbane in last week's Semi-Final at the Gabba, especially the midfield group.
The GIANTS lost some key areas against the Lions, including contested possessions (155-131), clearances (48-34) and inside 50s (61-44), but managed to break the club's finals duck away from Sydney.
They'll face an even more stacked Collingwood onball division on Saturday.
"We'd had a few knocks on us leading into the game because we hadn't won interstate in a final," Kelly said.
"In front of what was a pretty hostile crowd at the Gabba, there were moments in the game when Brisbane came hard at us and we had to stem their flow and get things back on our terms.
"Leon (Cameron) said after the game that those wins are really character-building and I think it was.
"Without playing in those games you can't get that experience so we've taken a lot from that."
