With his fellow Collingwood tall forwards just starting their AFL careers, Travis Cloke acknowledges he will shoulder a heavy burden against an experienced Adelaide defence in Saturday's cut-throat final.

But the 21-year-old is confident he, 10-gamer John Anthony and fourth-gamer Chris Dawes can hold their own against Crows stalwarts Nathan Bock, Ben Rutten and Nathan Bassett at AAMI Stadium.

Cloke said injuries to veteran Anthony Rocca, and younger key forwards Sean Rusling and Ben Reid, had thrown the designated Magpies' attack "out the window", but the replacements were holding up well.

"Chris Dawes and John Anthony have really come on in leaps and bounds in the second half of this year," he said.

"... They've got a pretty experienced backline, we've got a young forward line, but we're pretty enthusiastic and looking forward to the challenge."

With Adelaide's game built around their reliable defence, Cloke said the Magpies could put them under pressure by scoring early.

"Adelaide have come out and said it's going to be a low-scoring game," he said.

"They're pretty straight to their word, they don't talk a lot of smoke and shadows behind the window so we take that on board.

"I guess every game you want to get a positive start, so we're just looking forward to kicking a few early ones and carrying it on throughout the game."

Cloke expects to face Bock, the one Adelaide player yesterday named in the 40-man All Australian squad.

"It will be a big achievement for me to try to knock him over or have an interesting game against him one-on-one," he said.

"I'm looking forward to (playing against) him, we played in round 15 and he probably had me for the first half and I had him in the second half."

The Magpies are increasingly confident captain Scott Burns, forward Dale Thomas and defender Shane Wakelin will all be available after missing the Dockers game with injury.