A clash between two up and rising sides, two grand final match-ups from this decade and another trip west for Richmond will highlight Round 9 of the AFL.

Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans will resume hostilities when the clash at the MCG to kick off the round, as will Collingwood and the Geelong Cats who will meet in daylight for the first time since the 2011 grand final.

Elsewhere, the GWS Giants will be keen to continue their devastating form when they welcome the Western Bulldogs to Spotless Stadium, while Fremantle will attempt to break its season duck when they host Richmond at home.

Here is the full preview to Round 9.

Hawthorn versus Sydney Swans
One of the most intriguing rivalries in recent history will continue this Friday night when Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans lock horns at the MCG to kick off the round.

It started when the Swans upset the Hawks by ten points in the 2012 grand final, after which Channel Seven commentator Dennis Cometti said that “there was a difference between wanting to and willing to, and today Sydney were willing to”.

It’s a day Alastair Clarkson’s men clearly haven’t forgotten, as they have since gone on to win the last three premierships, the second of them, in 2014, at the expense of the Swans by 63 points.

Fast forward to today and both sides are sitting pretty at 6-2 for the season, with the Swans’ superior percentage seeing them occupy fourth place on the ladder while the Hawks are sixth.

John Longmire’s men had the chance to go third on the ladder but instead suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss to Richmond after the siren at the MCG last Saturday night, while the Hawks have rebounded strongly from their 75-point loss to GWS by defeating Richmond and Fremantle by 46 and 41 points respectively.

Recent history also favours the men in brown and gold, who have won six of their last eight matches against the Swans including a thumping 89-point win at ANZ Stadium last season, though the Sydneysiders did win their most recent meeting at the MCG in the corresponding match last season.

If the Swans are to win, they’ll have their work cut out in nullifying the Hawks’ mosquito squad of Luke Breust, Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo, who in Jarryd Roughead’s absence have kicked the majority of their goals this season.

Update: It has since been announced that Roughead will be out indefinitely due to a reoccurrence of the melanoma disease that sidelined him last July.

Prediction: Hawthorn by 25 points.

Collingwood versus Geelong Cats
It’s very rare that Collingwood and the Geelong Cats meet in a daytime clash, but that’s exactly what will happen when they face off at the MCG on Saturday afternoon in their first clash under the sun since the 2011 grand final.

The pressure seems to have lifted off Nathan Buckley’s shoulders for the time being after the Pies thrashed the Brisbane Lions by 13 goals at the Gabba last Saturday night, and they’ll be hoping that the form they showed in the Queensland capital carries on when they face the Cats for the only time this season.

The victory, though, continues to come in the face of adversity, with fallen forward Travis Cloke again struggling in the VFL and forward Jamie Elliott set to join Dane Swan on the sidelines for the rest of the season due to a back injury.

Meanwhile, the Cats have been very impressive so far in 2016, dropping just one match for the season so far. Their form has been attributed to the impact Patrick Dangerfield has made since he joined the club during last October’s trade period.

The ex-Crow has just about been their best player in most, if not all, of their matches so far and with every impressive performance continues to firm in betting for this year’s Brownlow Medal.

He and Joel Selwood will again provide the keys to victory for the Cats, and it will take a mountain of work from the injury-plagued Pies to shut them down and hand them just their second loss for 2016.

Prediction: Geelong Cats by 32 points.

Gold Coast Suns versus Adelaide Crows
The Gold Coast Suns’ season continues to go from bad to worse and it could get even uglier when they welcome the Adelaide Crows to Metricon Stadium this Saturday afternoon.

Having won their first three matches in a row to make us all believe they had finally grown up under Rodney Eade, the Suns have since dropped their last five matches, caused mostly by a crippling injury toll and the five-week suspension handed to Steven May in Round 4.

Captain Gary Ablett is no certainty to play after he was concussed in the final seconds of their 91-point loss to the GWS Giants last Saturday night, but if he does play, he alone won’t be the man the Suns will rely on as they attempt to break their duck against the Adelaide Crows.

The men from West Lakes have emerged from a tough opening eight rounds with a 4-4 record, and will be favoured to maintain their undefeated record not only against the Suns, but also at a venue where they have yet to taste defeat in eight previous visits dating all the way back to 1992.

They’ll need a big game from captain Taylor Walker, whose form has dropped partially due to a foot injury which contributed to a quiet performance against the Geelong Cats last weekend, as well as from midfielders Rory Sloane and Scott Thompson.

If those three can turn it on, then another long afternoon will loom for the Suns.

Prediction: Adelaide Crows by 65 points.

Port Adelaide versus West Coast Eagles
Currently undefeated at home this season, the West Coast Eagles will be out to break their duck on the road for 2016 when they face Port Adelaide at the Oval on Saturday afternoon.

While the Eagles are yet to drop a match on home soil this year, their travels have been abysmal, though they did lose to three very good teams in Hawthorn, the Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats in rounds two, five and seven respectively.

But the margins in those matches (46, 39 and 44) don’t make for any impressive reading at all, and that is something Adam Simpson would have to address to his men ahead of their first of two trips to the City of Churches for this season.

They will come up against a Port Adelaide side that has been anything but consistent this year, with all four of their victories coming against teams ranked below them on the ladder.

Ken Hinkley’s men were very unlucky to lose to Carlton by just two points last Sunday, and they’ll be keen to put their season back in the black against the Eagles, which will require a whole team effort for that to be achieved.

Prediction: West Coast Eagles by 18 points.

North Melbourne versus Carlton
North Melbourne’s undefeated start to the season should continue when they face an in-form Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

A dominant first half against Essendon laid the platform for a 14-point victory last week, but coach Brad Scott would’ve been disappointed that they didn’t go for the blowout victory that had been expected of them pre-match.

Still, they remain the only side yet to taste defeat this season and that is not expected to change with Carlton looming as their next challenge.

Many had predicted another long season for the Blues under new coach Brendon Bolton, but suddenly last year’s wooden spooners have sprung to life, winning their last four matches to suddenly be sitting at 4-4 and 11th on the ladder.

Their most recent outing saw them come from three goals down in the final quarter to upset Port Adelaide by two points, with that following victories over Fremantle, Essendon and Collingwood in the past month.

And while they lost their most recent meeting against North Melbourne by 61 points, they have won three of their last five against them dating back to 2011, and will be banking on that record to cause an upset on Saturday night,

However, the form guide should play out and the Kangaroos will win easily here.

Prediction: North Melbourne by 30 points.

Fremantle versus Richmond
As it was in the corresponding game last year, Fremantle’s Saturday night showdown against Richmond will be the first time that they are seen on free-to-air this season.

On that occasion, the Dockers were 9-0 to start the season until they ran into a Richmond side that were able to break their winning start to the season with an impressive performance from start to finish.

Now, nearly twelve months on and at 0-8 the Dockers are enduring their worst start to a season since 2001, and wouldn’t it be also fitting that they win their first game of the season in their first free-to-air match for the year.

Ross Lyon’s men took it up to triple-reigning premiers Hawthorn in the first half in Launceston last week, leading by two points at half-time before fading in the second half to lose by 41 points. Still, Lyon maintains that the Dockers gained plenty out of their trip to the Apple Isle.

Meanwhile, Richmond appears to have turned a corner after a disastrous start to the season, when they defeated the Sydney Swans by one point after Sam Lloyd kicked the match winning goal after the final siren.

Making it impressive was that they were able to do it without injured captain Trent Cotchin and defender Bachar Houli, who has since been ruled out for up to three months after suffering a wrist injury at training.

This will be their second trip to Perth in six weeks, having gone down to the West Coast Eagles by 68 points in Round 4. This time, the Tigers will be hoping that they return to Melbourne in a much more jovial mood than they did then.

Prediction: Richmond by 20 points.

Melbourne versus Brisbane Lions
Currently enjoying their best start to a season for a very long while, Melbourne will have the chance to put its season back into the black when they take on the struggling Brisbane Lions at the MCG this Sunday.

While they were never going to beat the Western Bulldogs, who were playing away from Etihad Stadium for the first time this season last Sunday, the Dees made Luke Beveridge’s men work hard for the victory, and by virtue of a Jeff Garlett goal in the final seconds, retrospectively denied them fourth place on the ladder.

Paul Roos’ men will enter Sunday’s match against the Lions as heavy favourites but whether they can justify their favouritism status will remain to be seen.

Already the Dees failed after being heavily favoured against Essendon and St Kilda in rounds two and six respectively, and if it is to continue its upward trend, it cannot afford to take the Lions lightly.

Justin Leppitsch’s are coming off an embarrassing 78-point loss to Collingwood at home and their fortunes don’t look like improving anytime soon, especially with triple-reigning premiers Hawthorn to come the week after this.

In what made for ugly viewing, the Lions failed to score a single point for the first one-and-a-half quarters and ended up with ten majors for the match, with only the Pies’ inaccurate kicking saving them from a triple-figure defeat.

They’ll again be without Dayne Beams, for whom a knee injury could end his second season at the Gabba, and captain Tom Rockliff, who is undergoing scans for a hamstring injury first suffered against Port Adelaide in 2007.

And so, a long afternoon will loom for the Lions against a Melbourne side that has been impressive this season, either leading or being level in the final quarter in all but two of their matches.

Prediction: Melbourne by 40 points.

GWS Giants versus Western Bulldogs
Two of the most exciting sides in the competition will meet on Sunday afternoon when the GWS Giants welcome the Western Bulldogs to Spotless Stadium for the very first time.

It had been a long time coming, but finally the Giants are living up to expectations and have emulated their 6-2 start to last season, shattering some club records in doing so.

In Round 6 against Hawthorn, they kicked their highest ever score of 24.14 (158), and last week thrashed the Gold Coast Suns by 91 points for not only their biggest marginal victory in the AFL but also their fifth straight victory.

Last week the Giants dominated from start to finish against the Suns, edging ahead of their expansion rivals in the race between the two clubs to climb up the ladder and reach the finals.

Their five-match winning streak will go on the line when they face the Bulldogs, who have not allowed the season-ending injury to captain Robert Murphy to impede their own 6-2 start to the season, though they will be weakened this weekend by the loss of former captain Matthew Boyd and forward Jack Redpath to suspension.

Boyd’s absence will leave another gaping hole in the Bulldogs defence, which will be tested against an attack led by the Giants’ tall timber in Jonathan Patton, Jeremy Cameron and Rory Lobb, as well as reborn forward Steve Johnson.

Between them, they have contributed 43.28 per cent of the team’s goals, kicking 58 goals out of the 134 they have booted this season, and thus it will take a Herculean effort from the Bulldogs defence, ranked second in the AFL, to shut them down.

In a disappointing footnote, the Giants will continue to be without Ryan Griffen and the Bulldogs likewise with Tom Boyd, both due to injury, thus stripping this match-up of its grudge-match status, given the events of trade week in 2014.

Prediction: GWS Giants by 26 points.

St Kilda versus Essendon
What was shaping as one of the grudge matches of the season has unfortunately had its intrigue fizzed out.

When Jake Carlisle requested to be traded to St Kilda from Essendon last October, many AFL fans had this match and the return clash in Round 16 circled on their AFL calendars.

But when Carlisle was named as one of 34 past and present Essendon players suspended for the season as a result of the supplements scandal, the two matches were stripped of their grudge match status.

Nonetheless, two teams coming off contrasting defeats will be out to return to the winners list when they clash at Etihad Stadium to complete Round 9.

Having endured narrow losses to Hawthorn and North Melbourne in the past month, the Saints fell backwards after suffering a humiliating 103-point loss to West Coast in Perth last weekend, kicking just three goals in the process.

Essendon, on the other hand, were restricted to their lowest first-half score in over a century when it managed only four points against North Melbourne, but its stunning second half fightback which saw them lose by just 14 points was applauded by their fans when they left the field after the final siren.

It marked their seventh loss in eight games this season but their second half efforts against the undefeated Kangaroos could raise some hope that a second win is just around the corner.

But with the Saints keen to bounce back in front of their fans under the Etihad Stadium roof, it might not be forthcoming.

Prediction: St Kilda by 22 points.