They just snuck it in but after 21 Rounds, Collingwood are finally being kind enough to grace the Dockers with a return match - outside of Victoria. It comes as shocking news to most Collingwood supporters that there is an outside of Victoria but we've cleared out all the dragons and made it safe for the Magpies to leave their home for a few hours. The game will, of course, be played on a Friday night to avoid parole conditions requiring most of their players to be in lock up on a Saturday night.

Unfortunately it's never a good sign to see the Dockers drawn to play Collingwood at home. It's usually been an indicator of a bad season for Fremantle. They broke a five year drought to come to Perth for the second time in 2001, Fremantle won only one two games that season and lost to the Mapgies at home. Chris Tarrant kicked 5 own goals and Justin Longmuir 3, both at 100% accuracy. Peter Bell had 33 touches and Paul Licuria 31.

Thinking they were onto a good thing, Collingwood returned in 2002. This time though, the Dockers had pulled their socks up and rolled the Magpies in the second half, after giving them a 5 goals head start. Peter Bell had a stack of the ball again, Paul Medhurst kicked 4 own goals and Leon Davis 3.

With their fingers burnt, Collingwood stayed away again until the rumours started to circulate the the Dockers couldn't play on a Friday night. So Eddie decided to schedule two matches against the Dockers and made one of them on a Friday night in Perth. They were right, of course, and the Magpies beat Fremantle by 33 points. Pavlich had the most of the ball for Fremantle and Andrew Browne kicked a couple of goals, with Leon Davis kicking 3 for Collingwood and Paul Licuria doing well with the footy.

Fremantle's slow starts to the season also caught Collingwood's attention so the next year they thought they would flip things around and came to Perth in Round 7. The memories of Round 7, 2005 still haunt Micky Malthouse to the point where he's been involved in a media muckraking campaign against the Dockers ever since. 112 points. That was the margin. The greatest winning margin in the history of the Fremantle Football Club and the biggest score they've ever kicked. The 4th greatest losing margin in the history of Collingwood and their biggest since the AFL was formed. The game was over before the end of the first quarter. Fremantle kicked 9 goals to the Magpies 0. By the end of the game the Dockers had kicked 28. Pavlich put through 6 of them and Des Headland and Luke McPharlin kicked 5. Josh Carr had 39 disposals and his brother Matthew had 28. For the Magpies, Lockyer kicked 2 goals and Chad Morrison had 24 touches. The Clinton Wolf Medal voting committee gave the 3-2-1 to Josh Carr, Matthew Pavlich and Dessy Headland but the umpires went for Matthew Pavlich, Peter Bell and Josh Carr.

They haven't been back since.

The last 4 matches have been played on the nice safe venue the locals like to call the MCG. Fremantle won the next two of those games but have been narrowly beaten in the last two.

Freo's last win against Collingwood was in Round 15 2006. Coming off the midseason break where the annual sack the coach campaign was waged with vigour, Fremantle had lost to Sydney and beaten a limp wristed Essendon at Subiaco Oval. Collingwood were flying high in third spot on the ladder so winning wasn't going to be easy and losing not an option. Jeff Farmer's 6 goals, Peter Bell's 38 touches and Josh Carr's 642 niggles saw the Dockers out muscle the Magpies for most of the game and come away with a hard fought 15 point win. 4 more goals went the way of Matthew Pavlich and Chris Tarrant kicked 3 own goals. Closest to Peter Bell on the ball count was Josh Carr with 28 and Dane Swan had 25 touches for the Magpies. Despite dominating, Peter Bell couldn't buy a vote from the umpires and the Brownlow votes went the way of Pavlich, Farmer and Josh Carr.

Last time the two sides met was in Round 1 this year. In a preview to how the season panned out, Matthew Pavlich was well held by both teams as the Dockers fought hard but couldn't make the most of their dominance of the ball and break free of Collingwood's stranglehold. Set to go into the last quarter a goal clear of Collingwood, Freo rapidly became buggered, Collingwood strung together some quick goals and the game was always going to be hard to win back from there. David Mundy had the most of the ball and Luke McPharlin put through 3 goals. In a sign of just how much it was Collingwood's day, Anthony Rocca kicked 6 goals while Dane Swan and Heath Shaw were their two best with the ball.

Last week Collingwood knocked off a disinterested Sydney at the Telstra Dome by 45 points to bring up their 12th win of the season. Travis Cloke kicked 5 goals and Dane Swan had 31 possessions. The win put them into 5th spot on the ladder, securing them a spot in the finals and giving them a slim hope of a top 4 finish.

Fremantle's chances of a top 4 finish are a bit worse than slim. Last week they lost to Richmond at the MCG to take their season losses to 16 (half of which were by less than 10 points). They are currently 14th on the ladder.