Aaron Sandilands said this week it is a just another game. Darren Glass said every week is equally important.
The build-up to this week's 39th Western Derby between Fremantle and West Coast has been less intense than usual, perhaps because both clubs are 3-3 with bigger fish to fry than just beating their rivals down the road.
But Shaun McManus, a veteran of 228 matches with Fremantle and 22 derbies in a 14-year career, said the talk of 'one week at a time' is thin veil.
"I know whilst you're in the public and playing you say 'It's just another game and we need to put in exact same effort as we do for any other team'," McManus said.
"But it's just one of those things. The emotion gets you. It goes without saying the intensity does go up."
The history of the derby is what gives it its edge. These days the games are evenly matched affairs between clubs with September ambitions.
The early days weren't even David versus Goliath, but rather the brutal suppression of a minority.
West Coast won the first nine derbies, and even after the first Fremantle win in 1999, the Eagles responded with 117-point thrashing of their local rivals in the first Derby in 2000.
"They had that unbeatable mid-‘90s team that hung around and I knew that they treated it like they needed to keep us down," McManus said.
"When you were playing them for the most part in the early days it seemed to me that this was a real grudge match."
Many believe that bitterness culminated in the so-called ‘Demolition Derby’, in round 21, 2000.
The Dockers won by a point in the most spiteful derby ever played. Four players were suspended, nine more were fined.
"That was a real memorable game," McManus said.
"We did draw a line in the sand that day and decide that we needed to come and show that we were not to be pushed around.
"We wanted to stand up. We wanted to be physical but we never talked about doing anything illegal."
Some say that was the start of the real derby rivalry, but more accurately it was probably the end of the derby suppression. The modern rivalry really took shape in 2003 when both teams were genuine finals contenders and the results started to go Fremantle's way.
"When we knocked them off a few times it just became more of another team, not so much a mountain to climb," McManus said.
"I guess if you lose to a team often enough it just takes on it's own big deal. Until you're able to put that to rest then it will always remain."
Fremantle have won 12 of the past 16. The ugly days seem long gone, but the fans still remember. The squaring of the ledger irks Eagles fans, while Dockers supporters will never forget the early days.
As a result, the derby always means something.
Read the full feature on the WA Derby, which includes interviews with past and current players from both clubs, in the round seven edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds.
