Premiers: Swans players celebrate their grand final win against West Coast in 2005. Credit:Vince Caligiuri Between the qualifying final in 2005 and round 16 of 2007, the Swans and Eagles played each other in seven matches in which no result was greater than two goals. In the first six of those matches, three were decided by a point, one decided by two points and two were decided by four points. Two of those epics were grand finals. Sydney beat West Coast in the 2005 decider and the Eagles edged the Swans the following year. "Now that we've all retired there's a real mutual respect for one another," Roberts-Thomson says."You have a connection through footy but it's especially strong because we played each other throughout that period, including the grand finals. It's a case of 'we won one, you won one' and that admiration for each other is really evident. We could sit back and have a beer and tell plenty of stories." Former Eagles wingman Embley recalls the era in much the same way. Coached by John Worsfold and featuring the likes of Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr, Darren Glass, Daniel Chick and the wayward genius Ben Cousins, Embley says the Eagles were able to win games when they weren't at their best. However, playing Sydney was unforgiving. "We were a very good team that was able to get through when we weren't playing all that well just because we knew how to win," the 2006 Norm Smith Medallist says.

"But we knew that every time we played the Swans we had to find something extra. We had to be at our absolute best. If we weren't, we'd get beaten, simple as that. "When you play footy you always want to test yourself against the best. You used to always know that against that Swans team it was going to be a tight tough contest. We had a lot of respect for the Swans and I think they had a lot of respect for us. It was a terrific era to be part of." The personnel have largely changed. Only Adam Goodes, Jarrad McVeigh and Ted Richards remain for the Swans and Sam Butler for the Eagles from the 2006 grand final. Of those, only Goodes and McVeigh will play on Sunday. But the effect of that remarkable period remains in the legacy it left at the Swans, who went on to win another premiership in 2012. "There were plenty of lessons we gained out of those games, which helped us down the track," says Roberts-Thomson, a dual premiership player. "Playing at Subiaco in front of a big West Coast crowd was a little daunting. The atmosphere was always electric. It really brought the team together, the fact that we were up against the odds.

"From an intensity point of view out on the field and understanding just how fast those games were, it gave you confidence for games later on in the season. "The Eagles were a great team and across the board they had wonderful players, so you knew that as an individual you really had to steel yourself for a solid one-on-one battle with your direct opponent. But then across the board it was a question of how many of those positions could we win in order to get us across the line. These were top-of-the-table clashes, so they were always really tense." There is a long way to go for the current sides to rekindle the kind of furious tug-of-war that existed between the clubs from 2005 to 2007. Embley says the rivalry can only be compared to a decade ago if the sides string together close games and finals clashes. "Sydney has been really strong since then," he says. "They didn't have that drop off that the West Coast Eagles had for a few years, so I think the rivalry is a lot different now.