It's Round 1 and Fremantle come up against the side most people predict will fight it out with Carlton for the spoon. A team that's struggled to cobble together more than a handful of wins in the past three years, has been playing for draft picks and has had a very good record against Fremantle over the years - what could possibly go wrong?

For the last few years or so, Hawthorn have been dragging Fremantle all the way over to Tasmania to slop around in the Launceston mud, we assume in some sort of attempt to bore the locals into submission so Victoria can take over the joint while they sleep (and it's no mean feat boring people into submission who's loc al attractions involve a place called Dismal Swamp and who's State Coat of Arms features a dead cat on it).

Fremantle have played their part in the evil scheme by joining in with the low skilled scraps and always letting the "home" side win. It's been to Hawthorn what the Telstra Dome has been to Essendon.

In Round 8 of 2004, Freo made the trip south east to Aurora Stadium. Both sides did their part in the suckiness department, with the Hawks just falling short of the low standard set by Freo, winning by 9 points - Hawthorn 10.10 (70) to Fremantle 8.13 (61). Troy Simmonds and Peter Bell kicked a couple of goals each for Freo, Crawford and Vandenberg did the same for the Hawks. The top ball getters on the day were Peter Bell and Richie Vandenberg with 17 kicks and 9 handballs each. Shaun McManus and Paul Hasleby also had a bit of it. Chance Bateman, Trent Croad and Matthew Pavlich picked up the Brownlow votes (Trent was playing for Hawthorn).

In Round 13, 2003 Fremantle also headed down to Tassie. A slow start from Fremantle had them 5 goals behind in the second quarter when the rain started to fall. The rain set in after half time and a very average game of footy meant the margin varied little for the rest of the game. Shane Crawford had 31 touches for the day, Paul Hasleby had 29 and Cox stood out with 28. Peter Bell kicked 3 goals for Fremantle and Angelo Lekkas kicked 4 for the Hawks. Shane Crawford, Luke Hodge and Peter Bell caught the umpires eye with the 3-2-1 in the Brownlow. Bell, Pavlich and McManus won the honours in the Clinton Wolf Medal.

Last year, Fremantle invited the Hawks over to Perth for a run. It was supposed to be an easy win for Fremanlte but someone forgot to tell the players. Perhaps it was the Miller girl marrying a Regan the day before that had them confused but the Dockers seemed to think they were in Tassie.

It was a shocking game. Shocking skills, no work ethic and more passengers than the QE2 were a recipe for a 54 loss - Hawthorn 18.16 (124) to Fremantle 10.10 (70). In fact, it was such a poor performance that if the game wasn't for charity, the players may have been lynched - some of them were anyway. Heath Black was the top ball getter for Fremantle with just 19 possessions and it trailed off quickly after that. Shane Crawford and Luke Hodge had picnics in the centre for the Hawks with 30 touches each. Sam Mitchell picked up 29. Mark Williams was hard to stop with that amount of ball being sent his way and finished with 5 goals. The Wiz dobbed 3 goals for the Dockers. The umpires liked the work of Crawford, Mitchell and Peter Everitt while the Clinton Wolf Medal committee controversially awarded their votes to Jeff Farmer, Peter Bell and Matthew Pavlich.

Fear not though, Fremantle did get a chance to visti the Stadium formerly known as York Park last year. It was against the Saints in Round 2. It was put up as an impossible task for Fremantle, with the St Kilda juggernaut supposedly going to crush them into the peat. Conditions weren't what you'd call ideal, with Aaron Sandilands being left out because he couldn't stand upright in the gale that was blowing. It was neck and neck for most of the day, with Fremantle getting their noses in front in the last quarter before a couple of brain explosions and a very dubious umpiring decision cost the Dockers the lead in the final minutes and a headline about Jeff Farmer that set a new low for a paper that was already very competitive on the international limbo circuit. Peter Bell had the most of the footy for Freo with 28 touches, Justin Longmuir was lively with 25 and picked up the 3 Brownlow votes. Paul Medhurst enjoyed his day, kicking 3 goals.

Of course it's Round 1 and it's always nice to look at how teams go first up - nice to look at unless you're a Freo supporter. Fremantle have a pretty poor record to start the season, having won the opening game of the season 4 times in 11 seasons. Things are turning around for them though, winning their last 2 Round 1 games, including a win over the reigning premiers last year.

In the same timeframe, the Hawks have won 6 and lost 5 but they've lost 3 of their last 4 opening matches including a 10 goal thrashing at the hands of Sydney last year

Over the pre-season, Fremantle had 3 wins and a loss to the NAB Cup winners. They beat the Eagles in the opening round of the NAB Cup by 62 points, Collingwood in Round 2 by 16 points, lost to Geelong by 20 points before rolling Port Adelaide in a scratch match by 58 points.

The Hawks had an early 10 point win against the Tigers before getting knocked out by the Crows when they lost by 13 points. Their tour of the scratch match circuit saw them lose to Essendon by 37 points and then beat the Eagles in Perth by 33 points.