Sydney must do something it has never managed under John Longmire's coaching tenure if they are to claim a place in the AFL top four.
Longmire and his Hawthorn counterpart and former North Melbourne teammate Alastair Clarkson have coached against each other in three grand finals, but Saturday's SCG encounter is surely their highest stakes home and away game.
The winner secures a top four spot and a coveted double chance, while the loser could miss out on a home game eliminator in week one of the finals.
The clubs enter the final round level on points with the Hawks one spot higher in fourth.
Hawthorn have seemingly crept into the top four by stealth, having been as low as tenth after round 17.
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Five straight wins, mostly against lowly-placed teams, have propelled them up the ladder without really indicating if Hawthorn are a genuine flag chance.
Sydney have confounded the sceptics who dismissed their chances of making the finals after successive losses and poor performances against Gold Coast and Essendon dropped them to ninth following round 19.
But Sydney reeled off consecutive wins over finals-bound sides Collingwood, Melbourne and GWS.
Hawthorn are the only club Sydney have never beaten at the SCG in Longmire's near eight-season tenure.
Longmire's success rate of 35.71 per cent against Hawthorn is his lowest against any club and Clarkson's nine wins against him are three more than any other coach has managed against the Swans mentor.
There was some sniping between the two men following Sydney's eight-point win at the MCG in May.
Clarkson accused Sydney's defenders of getting away with "blue murder" in off the ball blocking.
Longmire said Hawthorn did the same thing and branded Clarkson's breakfast meeting with AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, where the topic was raised, as "unusual and unnecessary."
The state of Sydney spearhead Lance Franklin's groin has dominated the leadup to Saturday's game, while the Hawks backline wiil be without the injured James Frawley, the obvious candidate to mind the Swans star.
