GRAND Final coaches in Richmond's Damien Hardwick and Greater Western Sydney counterpart Leon Cameron have been opponents in various capacities for the past 25 years.

The well-travelled 47-year-olds (Hardwick is two weeks older) have opposed each other as players, assistant coaches and, more directly for the past six seasons, as head coaches in careers that have traversed four clubs each. 

Overall, Hardwick has had the wood on Cameron, winning 15 of their 23 encounters. (This excludes their stints as assistant coaches).

However, Cameron has been edging closer in recent times with four wins in their past seven clashes as coaches. 

The Grand Final on Saturday will be the third time they have locked horns in finals, with their previous two September stoushes – one each as players and coaches – resulting in big wins to Hardwick.

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Both are driven men who have remained continuously involved at the highest level since their playing debuts – highly skilled country boy Cameron as a 17-year-old for Footscray in 1990, and the later developing, hard-edged Hardwick at 21 for Essendon in 1994.

It was in that 1994 season that they faced one another for the first time, when Cameron's Bulldogs defeated Hardwick's Bombers by 28 points at Waverley on a June afternoon in round 12. 

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Cameron, the Bulldogs' reigning club champion who'd represented Victoria for the one and only time just six weeks earlier, was best-afield with a game-high 30 possessions and a goal against the reigning premier, while Hardwick had 25 touches in defence in his seventh game. 

The first time they met in a final was when Cameron was a Tiger. In the final round of 2001, Richmond, then coached by the late Danny Frawley, had upset reigning premier Essendon by 24 points (which remains Cameron's most recent success against Hardwick at the MCG). In the qualifying final the next week the fearsome Hardwick and the Bombers produced a 94-point turnaround in the space of just seven days, en route to another Grand Final appearance. 

Cameron's teammates that night included Richmond's current CEO Brendon Gale and GWS football manager Wayne Campbell, while Essendon was coached by Kevin Sheedy, who later became the Giants inaugural coach and will present the premiership cup to them if they salute for the first time on Saturday.

Both Cameron and Hardwick served as assistant coaches at Hawthorn under master mentor Alastair Clarkson, though not at the same time, before landing their head coaching jobs. 

Their only other finals confrontation was in a preliminary final two years ago when Hardwick guided the Tigers to a six-goal win over the Giants at the MCG, before ending the club's 37-year premiership drought. 

Cameron now has the chance to tip the scales back in his favour with a victory in the biggest game of his life. 

His team could become the first to win a premiership after suffering two losses by at least 56 points in the last three rounds.

CAMERON v HARDWICK AS PLAYERS

Footscray/Western Bulldogs (Cameron) v Essendon (Hardwick)

Richmond (Cameron) v Essendon (Hardwick)

Richmond (Cameron) v Port Adelaide (Hardwick)

Totals as opposing players – Cameron won 4, Hardwick won 9

CAMERON v HARDWICK AS COACHES

GWS (Cameron) v Richmond (Hardwick)

Totals as opposing coaches – Cameron won 4, Hardwick won 6

Overall as opponents – Cameron won 8, Hardwick won 15 

• Information supplied by Stephen Rodgers and Mark Genge.