The 2006 AFL Grand Final will be contested between the West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans, a repeat of last year's thriller between the two clubs which ended with the Swans ending a 72-year premiership drought through their four-point win.

The memory of Leo Barry’s flying mark in defence in the dying seconds of last year’s Grand Final will no doubt be fresh in the minds of the Eagles, who will be keen to avenge that narrow loss.

It was a disappointing weekend for Fremantle and Adelaide after spending most of the year as strong premiership favourites. The Crows will look back at the 2006 season as an opportunity lost and Fremantle should feel a sense of pride in what has been their most successful season yet, but they, too, will go into the pre-season disappointed they could not carry their great form of the last half of the season into the finals.

First Preliminary Final: Sydney Swans 19.13.127 beat Fremantle Dockers 14.8.92

Sydney earned the right to defend their 2005 premiership after surviving a third-quarter Dockers comeback to record a 35-point victory.

It is the first time the Swans have played in consecutive grand finals since the former South Melbourne Football Club did it in 1935-36. The match will also be the club's third grand final since relocating to Sydney at the end of the 1981 season.

Sydney took control around the ground early in the match, as the nervous Dockers made several uncharacteristic skill errors. Poor kicking by the Swans (3.6 for the first quarter) and a strong performance by Fremantle centre half forward Matthew Pavlich kept the Dockers within four points at quarter time, but Sydney settled down and built a 17-point lead by half time. The Swans looked primed to blow the game open as the second half got under way, but the Dockers fought back in the third quarter to make the game a contest again, pulling to within eight points late in the piece.

But if there is one aspect that makes the Sydney Swans one of the best teams in the competition, it is their ability to stop opponents' momentum in its tracks, and once again the Swans came through on the big stage with two late goals to build a 20-point lead at the final change.

Pavlich had the Dockers back within 14 points with the first goal of the final quarter, but from there on it was all Sydney as Fremantle ran out of steam.

Sydney were led by captain Barry Hall (six goals, 14 marks) and Michael O’Loughlin and Ryan O’Keefe (four goals each). Jude Bolton collected 26 possessions.

In a sign of the growing popularity of Australian Rules Football in the traditional heartland of Rugby League, the almost exclusively pro-Swans crowd of 61,000 at Telstra Stadium on Friday night was almost twice that of the crowd that witnessed the National Rugby League preliminary final between Canterbury Bulldogs and Brisbane Broncos that was played at the same time at Sydney Football Stadium.

Second Preliminary Final: West Coast Eagles 11.19.85 beat Adelaide Crows 11.9.75

West Coast will challenge Sydney for the AFL top prize for the second year in a row after defeating Adelaide by 10-points at AAMI Stadium.

The Eagles were disappointing in the first half, kicking just two goals for the half, and the Crows led by 22 points at half time despite having just one more entry inside the forward 50-metre arc.

West Coast continued to struggle with accuracy as the second half got under way (4.5 in the third quarter) but the Eagles started to take control of general play led by key players such as Dean Cox, Chris Judd, Ben Cousins, and Daniel Kerr, and only trailed by eight points at the final change.

One key step by Eagles coach John Worsfold was the move of utility Adam Hunter to the forward line. Hunter was the spark that the Eagles forward line needed. With four goals and 16 possessions he was a big headache for the Crows defence.

The final quarter was a torrid and desperate affair, with a spot in the grand final up for grabs until the final seconds. West Coast raced to a 12-point lead with the first three goals of the final quarter, but a goal to Crows veteran Matthew Clarke knocked the margin back to single digits.

West Coast’s Sam Butler once again gave the Eagles the edge, but just as the game was slipping out of Adelaide’s grip, Nathan Bock breathed new life into the game with two successive goals for the Crows to reduce the margin to four points with approximately 30 seconds remaining.

With Adelaide about to clear the ball from the centre bounce in one final, desperate bid, West Coast were awarded a free kick. Ashley Hansen marked the ball seconds before the final siren, and the resultant goal after the siren sealed the Eagles' 10-point victory.

NEXT WEEK

Grand Final
Saturday September 30
Sydney Swans v West Coast Eagles
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne