Last year, St Kilda took their chance to put a bullet in Fremantle's season when the two sides met in Round 20. This week, the Saints will get their chance again as Fremanlte try and string 10 wins together to make it out of August. Luckily, St Kilda are using most of their bullets lately to shoot themselves and Fremantle have created a new bullet proof substance they like to call - Pavlar.

The last time the two sides met was a bit of an ordinary affair. A Saturday afternoon at the Dome with a WAFL sized crowd in attendance. The Dockers looked the goods early but quickly lost control of the game in the second quarter and watched their finals hopes fade away in the third with 7 unanswered goals to St Kilda, going down by 5 goals - 19.12 (126) to 14.12 (96). Fraser Gehrig had a good day out, kicking 8 goals while Pavlich could only manage 3. Peter Bell and Lenny Hayes picked up a bit of the footy with Gehrig, Hayes and Nick Dal Santo picking up the 3-2-1 in the Brownlow.

There have been some exciting games between Fremantle and St Kilda, there have been some controversial games between Fremantle and St Kilda but the previous couple of games were one sided paddlings, one of which ended the reign of Grant Thomas and set the St Kilda Football Club back 20 years.

At the end of 2006, the Dockers ripped St Kilda to shreds to lock away a final and storm into the top 4 in what was to be win number 7 of their 9 game streak. St Kilda kicked a couple of early goals but Fremantle put up an impenetrable defence and the Saints didn't trouble the scorer again until the umpire fixed them up for a couple after half time. Fremantle had no trouble scoring though, kicking 17 for the day and winning by 58 points. 4 of those goals came from Jeff Farmer, 3 from Matthew Pavlich and 3 from Shaun McManus. Big Fraser Gehrig managed an umpire assisted 2. The top ball getter for Fremantle was a singing centre half back by the name of Luke McPharlin while Robert Harvey had the most of it for St Kilda. The umpires gave their votes to Shaun McManus, Peter Bell and Brett Peake.

Fremantle were in red hot form back then but they dished out a similar treatment in about this time last year, under the bright lights of Friday night football. St Kilda attempted to cheat once again, with dodgy umpiring decisions and even more suspicious goal umpiring but they were still no match for the half strength Dockers. Freo had the game sewn up by quarter time, running rings around St Kilda before a more measured second and third quarter with a five goal final quarter burst to finish them off, winning by 46 points. Pavlich, Bell and Tarrant all kicked 3 goals with nothing but singles coming from the St Kilda players. Paul Hasleby, Peter Bell and Luke Mcpharlin had a ridiculous amount of the footy, while Nick Dal Santo managed a moderate best performance for St Kilda. The Clinton Wolf Medal voting committee liked the work of Peter Bell, Paul Hasleby and Michael Johnson ... in controversial circumstances.

You may remember another match between Fremantle and St Kilda. There was some confusion over the result. Well, there wasn't much confusion at the Fremantle end - they knew they'd won, but for some reason a couple of the St Kilda punks were under the impression the game was drawn (if you look in enough injecting rooms you'll probably find some who still think it should have been). It was an odd day. The siren sounded, the Freo players started celebrating a win but the umpires let play go on for another 10 seconds so St Kilda could kick a point and draw the game. Even then, after St Kilda had botched the attempt to steal the game, the umpires gave them a free kick to let them steal it again. They botched that one too and it was still a "draw". Days of trying to justify the unjustifiable followed until finally the AFL stepped in and gave Fremantle their points back.

Lost in the fog of cheating was the fact that it had been a pretty good game of footy. The Dockers returned to Tasmania after failing against the Hawks there just a month earlier and ran rings around what was then a very fancied St Kilda outfit. After getting out to a match winning lead in the last quarter, Freo put the queue back in the rack before a string of incomprehensible umpiring decisions, followed by the siren fiasco, saw the Saints get within cheating distance. Matthew Pavlich kicked a lazy 6 goals from his 21 disposals, Jeff Farmer kicked 3. Fraser Gehrig managed to sneak through 3 as well for the Saints. The top ball getters were Ball and Bell with 26 touches each. Still rattled by the goings on, the umpires gave votes to Matthew Pavlich and Josh Carr with Vossy’s brother stealing the one . The Clinton Wolf Medal committee went the way of Matthew Pavlich, Byron Schammer and Antoni Grover.

There was controversy in Tasmania a year earlier too when St Kilda last beat Fremantle - Round 2, 2005. After a neck and neck battle for most of the day, Freo got a mini break in the last quarter but the Launceston Flu struck again with a late fight back from the Saints, a couple of brain explosions and a one of the worst umpiring decisions Tasmania had seen to that point lost the Dockers the lead in the final minutes, seeing them go down by a solitary point - St Kilda 8.11 (59) to Fremantle 8.10 (58). Paul Medhurst copped some flak for not passing to Des Headland in the final minutes but still booted 3 goals for the match. The ever reliable Peter Bell had 28 touches, Lenny Hayes had 29 for the Saints and topped their scoring with 2 goals.

You may also remember another close match when Fremantle played St Kilda at Subiaco Oval later that year. In scenes from a bad Hollywood movie, Justin Longmuir rose above a pack of 13 other players in front of a packed Subiaco Oval on a Friday night, to take the mark of the decade, a handful of seconds before the siren. He took his kick, split the middle of the goals, the crowd went spastic and Freo won by 5 points. Obviously Paul Hasleby had the most of the footy, racking up is standard 31 touches. For the Saints, Robert Harvey got rid of the ball 25 times. On the goal kicking front, Luke McPharlin, Matthew Pavlich and Fraser Gehrig all bagged 4. The umpires liked the work of Hasleby and Harvey giving them the 3 and 2 votes respectively, with Leigh Montagna taking home the 1. In laughable scenes, the Saints tried to claim after the match that the umpires had cheated despite an even free kick count. an inquiry was launched to stop Grant Thomas from balling his eyes out Maxy Hudghton style, but in the end was dismissed as just another bit of St Kilda sooking.

This week, Fremantle head to east to play St Kilda in Melbourne. The last two times Fremantle have played the Saints there has seen them kick the Dockers out of the finals. In Round 22, 2004 the Dockers were desperate for a win to get back into the top 8. Freo played one of their better games for the year but found themselves undermanned and out of luck. After letting the Saints out to an early lead, they fought back to be with 6 points at the first break. It was a pattern that continued, and Fremantle found themselves clawing back ground at the end of each quarter. Falling as far behind as 40 points, Fremantle got with 16 points late in the last quarter but were coming from too far back and fell 29 points short. Jeff Famer and Troy Longmuir topped the goal scoring with 2 each. Big Fraser Gehrig kicked 4 for the Sainters. Paul Hasleby and Matthew Pavlich had the most of the ball for Fremantle and Vhitey Riewoldt had plenty for the Saints (obviously before he switched from the no more tears shampoo). Brendon Goddard caught the eyes of the umpires and was given the 3 Brownlow votes, Del Santo and Vhitey rounded out the placings.

This will be Fremantle's second trip to the Telstra Dome this year. In Round 9 they played Carlton there. You may remember something about a three quarter time lead, Matthew Pavlich and a point post. That was the Dockers 4th loss from their last 5 matches at the Telstra Dome. The Saints have played 9 games at the Dome this year. They've lost 4 of those and won 5.

Last week St Kilda were rolled by the Swans in what many are generously describing as St Kilda starting to tank. Charlie Gardiner kicked 3 goals and Lenny Hayes got rid of the ball a lot. That was their 7th loss for the season and 4th loss from their past 5 matches. They are currently 10th on the ladder.

Fremantle have also lost 4 of their past 5 games but they are coming of a season defining victory over the Kangaroos. Matthew Pavlich kicked 8 goals and Jeff Farmer ran amok around the ground with a career high stat count. The win has put them 4 games out of the top 8.