A Fremantle assistant has been booted from a public Western Bulldogs training session just days out from the crunch clash that will settle their finals fate.

The petty Bulldogs — led by angsty coach Luke Beveridge — kicked Fremantle ruck coach Sam Naismith out of their open session on Friday as tension grows ahead of the must-win match for both sides.

Sunday’s high-stakes match at Marvel Stadium on Sunday will decide their finals fate. If they win, they will play in just their second finals series in the past decade, but a loss would almost certainly send them tumbling out of the top eight.

If they were to miss out on finals, the Dockers would be the first-ever team to do so after winning more than 13 games. They have 15 wins under their belt ahead of the final round.

It means the blockbuster match could also double as Fremantle legend and two-time Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe’s final match. The veteran — who is arguably the club’s greatest-ever player — has announced he is retiring at the end of this season.

Dockers players flew to Melbourne on Friday, but former Richmond and Sydney player Naismith was already in Victoria.

The towering ex-ruckman was asked to leave the session by Bulldogs assistant coach Daniel Pratt, despite sitting just metres away from members of the public and media at Footscray’s Whitten Oval.

The comical nature of the giant former coach acting as the undercover agent sparked a series of internet memes.

Pratt — who is a former West Coast assistant — approached Naismith and fellow Dockers coaching staff member Geoff Valentine and asked them to leave. After a brief discussion, the pair stood up and left the venue.

Neither club would comment on the incident when approached by The West Australian.

Sending scouts to opposition training sessions is a decades-old tactic in global sport. At last year’s Olympics in Paris, Canada’s national women’s soccer team were caught out sending drones to spy on their New Zealand rivals and were docked six tournament points.

In 2019, Leeds coach Marcelo Bielsa admitted to spying on all of their opponents in the second tier of English soccer, while football clubs have used the tactic for years in WA.

It’s not the first time the Bulldogs’ coaching staff have been caught up in bizarre incidents. Earlier this season Beveridge was involved in a heated exchange with Channel 7 expert Kane Cornes while he was on the field for the networks’ pre-match show ahead of a clash with Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

Just weeks ago, Beveridge says he “feels sorry” for any reporters that work with Cornes during a tense pre-match press conference.

Earlier this week, Dockers coach Justin Longmuir heaped the pressure back on Beveridge’s side.

“We’ve been in these situations before. The pressure is on them, isn’t it? Last time I checked, they’ve won one less game than us,” he said on Wednesday.

“The narrative around some of this stuff gets me a little bit, because last time I checked we are on the same amount of wins as Collingwood, who are fourth.”

Beveridge laughed when asked about Longmuir’s comments at his scheduled media appearance on Friday, which came before the

“There’s always pressure, regardless of the sheep stations we play for,” he said.

“One thing I know is that there will be one team, one club, one supporter base that is going to be bitterly disappointed on Sunday afternoon, and we plan for it not to be us.

“There’s just a great opportunity to open up a Pandora’s Box and play a finals series, so we put pressure on ourself to do that and avoid the disappointment.

“I’m not that interested in the tit-for-tat on that. The equation is simple, both teams are in the same situation, you win or you’re out.

Fyfe was stopped at Perth Airport for a selfie with fans and was flanked by his partner as the Dockers took off on Friday. His close friend James Aish was also on the flight, despite not being named in the club’s squad for the match.

In a stirring retirement speech, Fyfe urged teammates to “stay present” and “let’s win that f...ing cup”.

The Dockers can mathematically finish as high as fourth if they defeat the Bulldogs, but realistically, it is more likely they finish seventh. That would mean they do not play another game in Perth this season.