The Fremantle Dockers and Sydney Swans have developed a healthy finals rivalry in recent years.
It started in 2006, when the Dockers met Sydney in the club’s first-ever preliminary final.
The port side had accumulated 15 wins for the season to finish third on the ladder and enter finals for just the second time in history.
Heading in to the match, Fremantle had lost to the Crows in Adelaide by five goals before narrowly defeating Melbourne at home to secure the preliminary final.
The reigning premiers, Sydney, were full of confidence after winning a one-point thriller against West Coast at Subiaco Oval.
Although Fremantle fought hard, the Swans were too strong – with six goals from Barry Hall and four from Michael O’Loughlin helping Sydney to a 35-point win in front of 61,000 fans at ANZ Stadium.
All-Australian ruckman Aaron Sandilands this week recalled the excitement leading in to the club’s first preliminary final.
“We’d had a pretty poor start to the season but we turned things around in the second half of the year,” Sandilands said.
“We had experienced guys like Peter Bell leading the way.
“I was reasonably young back then and was just taking it all in, to be honest.
“We landed ourselves a prelim against Sydney and knew it was a big challenge, taking them on over there. They were a quality side at that point in time.
“Being the first prelim we were involved in, the crowd at our last training session was pretty solid.
“The group was pretty excited to be playing in a prelim final.”
Sandilands, who was 23 at the time, dominated in the ruck with 39 hitouts and also chipped in a goal.
Matthew Pavlich booted four goals for the day and then-captain Bell collected 24-disposals and three goals.
Sandilands said he was feeding the ball to a different group then, with midfield stars Nat Fyfe, Stephen Hill and Lachie Neale not yet on the scene.
“We had blokes like Peter Bell, Paul Hasleby, Shaun McManus and Troy Cook going through the midfield then,” Sandilands said.
“Obviously the midfield has changed a fair bit.
“But the group we’ve got now has been working pretty closely together for the past three or four years and the chemistry is pretty good.”
David Mundy, Luke McPharlin, Michael Johnson and Ryan Crowley also played in the 2006 prelim, while Adam Goodes, Ted Richards and Jarrad McVeigh are the only Swans left from that match.
Sandilands has now played in more than 200 games and 13 finals, but said experience wasn’t necessarily the key.
“Each finals series is different,” he said.
This Saturday Fremantle will meet Sydney in the finals for a third time in as many years.
Freo sought redemption for 2006 with a win against Sydney in the 2013 preliminary final, but went down by 24-points to the Swans in last year’s qualifying final.
Sandilands said Sydney presented a big challenge, even without star forward Lance Franklin, co-captain Kieren Jack or talented mid Luke Parker.
“We have to play our best football,” he said.
“They are a proud group and they will steel themselves and look at this as a great opportunity to come over to Perth and knock us off.”
He said the coach-subscribed weeks rest leading in to this game had helped him prepare.
“The body is feeling really good – mentally and physically. I’m looking forward to Saturday afternoon,” Sandilands said.
