Greg Williams may not be there in the flesh, but the dual Brownlow Medallist for both Sydney and Carlton will be there in spirit when his old teams vie for line honors in the First Semi-Final at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

“I’ll be watching on from somewhere for sure,” said Williams, who also has a Carlton Premiership, Norm Smith Medal and AFL Team of the Century gong to show for his 16 seasons as one of the game’s pre-eminent exponents.

Notwithstanding “Diesel’s” 34 senior appearances for Geelong, Williams’ 107 matches for Sydney and 109 for Carlton places him in an awkward position in terms of this weekend’s encounter.

As he said when asked if the Sydney-Carlton contest seriously tested the allegiance: “It’s difficult . . . I’m in the Hall of Fame for both clubs”.

“They (Carlton) are looking a lot better than they did a couple of weeks ago,” Williams said. “They’ve really found something, they’ve got some momentum happening and it’s great.

“But this won’t be easy . . . is (Matthew) Kreuzer out? That’s a big thing because Sydney has so many big blokes and that’s a real issue for (Robert) Warnock on his own. They’ll have to put (Levi) Casboult in if Kreuzer doesn’t play.”

Carlton and Sydney have met at ANZ Stadium on three previous occasions with the Swans emerging victorious in all three – the last of them a narrow five-point triumph in the First Elimination Final of 2010.

The Blues have also dropped 11 of their past 12 matches to the Swans in Sydney dating as far back as 1994, but the players can take heart in the knowledge that their coach has commandeered his teams to seven victories from nine starts at the Olympic venue.

Williams, who will this year present the Norm Smith Medal on Grand Final day, isn’t sure whether either of Saturday night’s combatants will make it to the big one - “but hopefully one of them can”.

Just don’t ask him which one.