A new season is almost here and, while some clubs like to wipe the slate clean (or the mirror on the coffee table) every season, Fremantle are a team steeped in tradition. They don't hide from the past, they embrace it. They want to remember all the times they were flogged at Football Park or ambushed at home by upstarts in fruity jumper - because this is the year Fremantle level the score.

Port Adelaide were kind enough to offer Fremantle a leg up into the finals at the end of last year. Weary from a long season and tense entering their first finals campaign since 2003, the Dockers invited Port Adelaide over to Perth for what turned out to be a slightly lighter run than your average int-raclub scratch match - albeit one where the home team was unfairly stacked with good players. It was Fremantle's 9th win in a row and their biggest for the season. 79 points was the margin when Port finally decided to walk off the ground. Jeff Farmer kicked 6 goals, Matthew Pavlich a lazy 5 and Tony Thurstans top scored for the Power with 2. Brett Peake had a career high 29 touches and ran a similar number of kilometres. Kane Cornes had the most of it for Port Adelaide, getting rid of the ball 35 times as he seagulled it up around the ground. Brett Peake picked up the 3 Clinton Wolf medal votes in controversial circumstances, with Jeff Farmer and Ryan Crowley rounding out the placings. The umpires almost got it spot on but threw Aaron Sandilands in for the 1 vote.

That was Fremantle's second win over Port Adelaide for the season. Earlier in the year they'd been sent over to Footy Park in during the Dockers AFL sanctioned caravan trip around Australia. Despite the travel schedule, the once impenetrable fortress of Football Park became Fremantle's playground, handing out a 5 goal shellacking to Port. Luke McPharlin kicked 3 goals for Freo and Brendon Lade 4 goals for the Power. Paul Hasleby racked up 16 kicks and 15 handballs, Matthew Pavlich took 15 marks and Josh Carr only gave away 3 free kicks for his 27 possession, 2 goal game. Kane Cornes got rid of the ball 26 times for Port. Mundy, Johnson and Hasleby didn't feature in the Brownlow despite picking up the 3-2-1 in the Clinton Wolf. Josh Carr picked up top votes in the Brownlow. Brendon Lade somehow snuck in for the 2 and Pav picked up the 1.

It was a nice winning streak of two games in a row for Fremantle but it's been Port Adelaide who have had the wood over Fremantle in the past. From 15 games, Port have won 10 and Fremantle just 5. It took the Dockers 4 years to beat Port Adelaide and another 4 to do it again. Still, the tables are turning with Fremantle winning 3 of the last 4 matches.

Port's last win over Fremantle was in Round 22, 2005. The Dockers had ripped their finals hopes out of the fire when Justin Longmuir dragged down the mark of the century a week earlier, to beat the Saints after the siren. Then they made the toughest trip in footy to Adelaide to take on a struggling reigning premiership side needing to win, or lose by a very small margin to go through to the finals. The Dockers put on a footy clinic in the first half and people were queuing up at ticket outlets around Fremantle but a September hardened Port Adelaide turned up the class in the last half, to give Freo a 45 point lesson in finals footy.

Port won't let the trip to Perth phase them. They've only lost to Fremantle at Subiaco twice from 6 outings - last year and in the opening round of 2005. In 1998, 2001 and 2002 Port Adelaide flogged the Dockers at Subiaco Oval. In 2004 Fremantle narrowed the margin from the previous year by 74 points to lose by just 10 points. Then in Round 1 2005, they beat Port Adelaide at home for the first time since the WACA was decommissioned.

It was a six goal drubbing of the reigning premiers. Matthew Pavlich took to centre half forward like a West Coast midfielder to a pile of laundry, Shane Parker was a tower of strength in defense and Josh Carr's debut had fans salivating at the thought of another 21 rounds with him in the middle. Freo lead all day and made Port look slow, weak and stupid with the Power resorting to rough house tactics and flooding to try and stop the Freo juggernaut. Matthew Carr had 33 touches, Josh had 26 and Matthew Pavlich took 11 marks and kicked 3 goals, Dion Woods kicked 2. For Port Adelaide, Primus kicked a couple and Kane Cornes picked up 28 soft possessions. Clinton Wolf liked the look of Shane Parker, Josh Carr and Matty Pavlich. As they are want to do, the umpires disagreed and gave their votes to Heath Black, Josh Carr and Paul Hasleby.

The big difference between all the other times Port Adelaide have been to Perth and this week is, of course, Port used to be good. Time hasn't been kind to the Port players and their fortunes have taken a fairly rapid dive from winning a flag just a few seasons ago. They won just 8 games last season and finished 12th on the ladder.

Port Adelaide's pre-season saw them knock off the Crows in the opening round of the NAB Cup before bowing out at the hands of Geelong in Darwin. They flogged St Kilda int heir first scratch match and then fell over the line against Sydney a couple of weeks ago.

Fremantle’s pre-season campaign went along similar lines, thrashing the Eagles in the first round before losing to the Kangaroos in the second. In the scratch matches they demolished Hawthorn and Adelaide.