The pair have been together for seven years but are adamant their differing allegiances haven’t caused tension… so far. “It’s going to be an interesting week,” Sam says. AFL members snapped up their allocated tickets in just over four hours on Sunday. Ticketek released 23,000 tickets for AFL members with gold members from 10am, with club Collingwood or West Coast support getting first dibs. At 2pm that was opened to all AFL gold members and they sold out within 20 minutes.

Rachel and Sam, who did not want their surnames published, go to each other’s matches and their home is full of posters and paraphernalia for both sides. “During the game it gets tense, but we manage to keep it sensible outside of that,” Sam jokes, to which Rachel adds: “Talk to us at half time on Saturday, maybe.” Both have been fans of their respective teams “since birth”, and grew up in footy-mad households, Rachel in Western Australia and Sam in Victoria. When Rachel moved to Melbourne for work her father had one piece of advice for her. “The one thing my Dad said to me was ‘just make sure you don’t end up with a Collingwood supporter’,” she said. Yet she did, although she didn’t know that at first. When they started dating, Sam said he kept his Collingwood colours hidden for the first few weeks, which he says was difficult given the team was in the midst of its 2011 finals campaign at the time.

“I wanted to keep it secret I was a Collingwood supporter. I thought the stigma might be a turn-off,” he said. Despite their differences, they’ve been able to make it work. Sam says he now considers the Eagles his “second team”, while Rachel says her father has developed a soft spot for the Pies. So who will win on Saturday? Sam: “Definitely Collingwood. I’m a little bit concerned about (the strength of West Coast players) Darling and Kennedy, but I think our midfield is stronger so we can win it out of the middle.” Rachel: “I think the Premiership is coming back to Western Australia. We’re a much more mature side than we were in 2015, so I think it’s ours.”