Best mates Heath Russell and Adam Wilson are both celebrating 100 games for the Goulburn Swans.

Whether it was fate or meticulous planning from the pair, both will celebrate the milestone in a hotly anticipated final.

There is a lot more than victory on offer come the first bounce tomorrow afternoon.

Not only will the victor advance for a finals prelim with Cootamundra, recent history between the two rivals is bound to add fire to the occasion.

The last time the two sides met last month, the Roos won 77-63, but only in controversial circumstances that eventuated in a suspension of a Yass fielded umpire.

Further along, it was Yass who knocked the Swans out of the finals race last season, only one game shy of the grand-final.

“It’s worked out pretty conveniently hasn’t it? I get to run out with a good mate and in finals in a fairly big occasion too,” Russell said.

“But I suppose the old cliché is thats it is another game. Against Yass, they’ve always had the wood on us, even when we were quite successful, they seemed to lift another gear.

“So if you need extra motivation in a final it’s handy to have.”

Russell played his first game for the Swans in 2006. He came from Narrandera where AFL was the domineering sport and he was taken back by how low profile the Swans were.

It was a year later that Wilson, who originally had no idea about the game, played his first game of AFL for the Swans.

“It was actually in the middle of a game, and I chased a ball that had gone through for a behind. I went to get it and he (Wilson) was sitting there with a few other mates,” Russell said.

“I said you should come out and have a run next week. He turned up to training and that’s the rest of it.”

From there their mateship grew. Wilson even donned best man duties at Russell’s wedding.

But for Wilson, what started as a whim in a sport he had no idea about has now become an important part of his life.

He is a key member and part of the Swans leadership group. He is also a veteran of the 2009 grand-final winning side, which so happened to be coached at the time by Russell.

“It’s not something I ever really thought would happen,” Wilson said.

“Especially to play 100 games in a sport I didn’t know much about to begin with.”

For both players, finishing the season on a high would rate as an ideal way to cap off a special season.

Russell says it will be his last.

“Having coached from 2008 to 2010 and having a fair input into the club… it’s good to see that AFL is growing,” he said.

“I think it is in Goulburn and it’s getting a bit more recognition in the town.”

The Swans take on the Yass Roos tomorrow at 12pm at Canberra’s Jamison Oval.

The winner will proceed to the preliminary final with Cootamundra, while the loser will play the winner of Cooma vs Ainslie.