Collingwood defender Heath Shaw is not fussed by the grim AFL grand final history that hangs over his famous Magpie family.

Shaw and his team-mates are brimming with well-deserved confidence in the wake of an impressive season and now Friday night's decisive 41-point win over Geelong in the preliminary final.

He is one game away from being part of the Collingwood premiership that eluded his father Ray and older brother Rhyce.

Ray captained the Magpies when they lost the 1979 and '80 grand finals in the depths of their notorious "Colliwobbles" era.

He was only five in 1990 and remembers little when his uncle Tony skippered the 'Pies to their drought-breaking premiership.

Then came 2003, when Rhyce was in the Collingwood team that surrendered meekly to Brisbane in the grand final.

Rhyce is now at Sydney and Heath, 24, was greeted by his father in the packed Collingwood rooms post-match.

"You look at the disappointment they've had and the stories they tell, but it's a different ball game," Heath said of his brother and Dad.

"It's changed a lot since when Rhys was playing in a grand final, so you can only look forward, there's no need to look back.

"We just get ourselves right for this week and hopefully it all turns out well.

"We're there now, we have our opportunity and we're going to take it with both hands, we're going to have a real crack."

The Magpies defender was in awe of his team's first quarter on Friday night, when they kicked seven goals to one and put the Cats out of the game.

He said the fierce pressure of team-mates up the ground made life much simpler for the defence.

"We came here and we were ready to go ... we had our game plan and in that first quarter, seven goals to one, the pressure up forward was amazing," he said.

"It made the backline job very easy.

"Hats off to 22 players who went out there, everyone contributed.

"We did play to our best and we definitely take confidence out of that, take that momentum through to next week."

Full-back Simon Prestigiacomo will be among several Collingwood players pushing to make a senior recall in the grand final.

Shaw said he was glad not to have any say in whether the Magpies' defensive rock should come back into the side after several weeks out with a quad muscle injury.

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