Brett Kirk led Sydney inspirationally to the 2005 premiership and throughout his 241-game AFL career, but is now having a big say in plotting their 2013 downfall.

Kirk joined Ross Lyon’s coaching staff at Fremantle this year and has had a big influence on the likes of Matt de Boer, who reaches the 100-game milestone in Saturday night’s preliminary final at Patersons Stadium.

Lyon is a former Sydney assistant, as was another member of his Dockers’ staff in Mark Stone, so intelligence on the Swans is readily available.

But Kirk’s first-hand experience at Sydney is much more recent, having retired as a player at the end of the 2010 campaign.

“He obviously has some more intricate knowledge of them and has helped feed that through to the boys,” de Boer said on Wednesday.

“Obviously the gameplan has changed a little bit since he was there, but in terms of knowing the players a little bit it definitely has been helpful.”

The Swans might be the walking wounded, without a host of stars and having to travel to Perth, but de Boer insists the Dockers will not be gifted an easy path into what would be their first-ever AFL grand final.

The Dockers entered the AFL in 1995, did not qualify for the finals until 2003 and did not win a playoff match until 2006.

“Being favourites means nothing,” said de Boer.

“Sydney are the reigning premiers and people have written them off before at their peril.

“We will have to be hot on our game early and stick to our gameplan to take them down.

” … in terms of the ground we know that Sydney like playing here and they are a very hard running side so it won’t hold any fears for them.”