Paul Roos

Late July and early August is when teams either make or break their seasons. Fremantle had been losing consistently over the last few weeks with the loss of top line players to injury proving telling. Sydney hadn’t fared much better and a win in this contest would consolidate their top eight position and put pressure on Fremantle for a home ground Final.

Round 21 represents the 550th game for Bulldog Coach Rodney Eade as a player or coach. Eade played 229 games with Hawthorn and 30 games for the Brisbane Bears. He coached Sydney in 152 games before joining the Bulldogs. Eade becomes just the 13th person in the history of the League to reach this mark.

In the week leading up to Round 20 the AFL announced a number of proposed rule changes, the most controversial being a limit on interchanges. Should any or all of the rules be accepted by the 17 clubs, who were notified of the proposals by Operations Manager Adrian Anderson, they will be introduced next season.

Sydney's Henry Playfair announced his immediate retirement ahead of Round 16 due to a serious back injury. He was initially injured in Round 14. After consulting club medical staff, the injury plagued star decided he could not face another lengthy round of rehab.

Round 16 will see Sydney Coach Paul Roos notch 550 games as a player and coach. This includes 269 games as a player for the Fitzroy Lions 1982-1994, 87 games as a player for the Sydney Swans and 193 games as coach of the Sydney Swans.

A career that almost wasn't will come to a close at the end of this season with Sydney's Brett Kirk announcing his retirement when the season is completed. In making the announcement, Kirk said he knew in his heart that the time was right. Kirk began his football journey in Sydney's Reserves but was cut from team. He refused to accept the rejection, returning home to play two seasons with his local club before trying again at Sydney.

Rick Browner reporting for AFANA from Subiaco Oval

ANZAC Day holds a special place in the hearts of all Australians and was honored by the AFL in Round 5. Fremantle has a good ANZAC Day record, having won eight from thirteen "Len Hall" memorial games since entering the competition in 1994. Before the match, veterans paraded with a military band and an eternal flame was lit to pay respect to the fallen soldiers of Australia and New Zealand. As the lone bugler played the Last Post there was absolute silence in the crowd of thirty two thousand as each paused for one minute of remembrance.  The Len Hall Game is named in honor of a member of the Western Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment, active during the Gallipoli campaign.