The names almost certain to be missing from the Essendon side of 12 months ago are Steven Alessio, Paul Barnard, Justin Blumfield, Blake Caracella, Rob Forster-Knight, Chris Heffernan, Gary Moorcroft, Adam Ramanauskas and Paul Salmon. The replacements for those names – if the Bombers remain unchanged – will be Matthew Lloyd, Dustin Fletcher, Dean Solomon, David Hille, Adam McPhee, Damian Cupido, Ben Haynes, Marc Bullen and Aaron Henneman.
That is a big turnover in the space of 12 months but this line-up is now settled and playing good football. Adam Ramanauskas (20) and Blake Caracella (21) did well that night collecting 41 possessions between them. The other players didn't have any real influence collecting just 53 possessions between them. You would hope the players included in the side this season will have a greater impact and looking at the names they should.
Port Adelaide on the other hand will certainly be missing Josh Francou and Barnaby French, in all probability Matthew Primus and probably Jared Poulton. Roger James and Che Cockatoo-Collins didn't play last weekend. So that means there were six different faces that took on Sydney - Dean Brogan, Brent Guerra, Stuart Cochrane, Darryl Wakelin, Michael Wilson and Byron Pickett. With James and Cockatoo-Collins almost certain to return there will be four new faces this Saturday night.
So both sides have some big 'ins' this weekend when you compare them to the sides of 12 months ago. Apart from the different names, the stakes are the same. It will simply boil down to the side that wants to take on Collingwood in a Preliminary Final.
Below are the statistics from the 2002 first Semi-Final.
| PORT ADELAIDE | KICKS | MARKS | HANDBALLS | DISP. | GOALS | BEHINDS | HIT-OUTS | |
| Matthew | Bishop | 13 | 7 | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter | Burgoyne | 5 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Shaun | Burgoyne | 6 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Josh | Carr | 14 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Che | C-Collins | 11 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Chad | Cornes | 17 | 13 | 6 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Kane | Cornes | 18 | 8 | 6 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Stuart | Dew | 14 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Josh | Francou | 9 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Barnaby | French | 3 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Damien | Hardwick | 5 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Roger | James | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adam | Kingsley | 6 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brendon | Lade | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Brett | Montgomery | 8 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen | Paxman | 7 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jared | Poulton | 7 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Matthew | Primus | 7 | 4 | 9 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| Jarrad | Schofield | 15 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nick | Stevens | 19 | 3 | 8 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Warren | Tredrea | 13 | 10 | 8 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Gavin | Wanganeen | 19 | 6 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 218 | 101 | 95 | 313 | 11 | 17 | 22 | ||
| ESSENDON | KICKS | MARKS | HANDBALLS | DISP. | GOALS | BEHINDS | HIT-OUTS | |
| Steven | Alessio | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| Paul | Barnard | 7 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Justin | Blumfield | 5 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mark | Bolton | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Blake | Caracella | 13 | 6 | 8 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Robert | F-Knight | 6 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris | Heffernan | 9 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James | Hird | 8 | 0 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Danny | Jacobs | 9 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jason | Johnson | 15 | 3 | 8 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark | Johnson | 11 | 7 | 12 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Scott | Lucas | 12 | 7 | 4 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cory | McGrath | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark | McVeigh | 4 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe | Misiti | 12 | 7 | 11 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary | Moorcroft | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Damien | Peverill | 8 | 3 | 18 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adam | Ramanauskes | 18 | 9 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Dean | Rioli | 10 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Paul | Salmon | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Sean | Wellman | 11 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andrew | Welsh | 9 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 182 | 79 | 110 | 292 | 8 | 10 | 28 | ||
