Should we be renamed the Fremantle - Walyalup Dockers?

[Kram]

If I was to change anything it would be just dropping the Dockers nickname.

It's an eastern states name for a wharfie and I find very few of our supporters actually use it.

About the only positive is that it's not as bad as the 'Power'.

 

[Kapow!!!]

As someone who generally greatly dislikes tokenistic bullshit so people can feel good about themselves, the temp name change was a brilliant move by Melbourne. Being forced to use Indigenous language is actually a fantastic way to embrace the culture and think a little but differently

Making it permanent becomes the worst version of tokenism that doesn't actually do anything and is not a fair representation of anyone

The best way I've ever heard it put was a humorous David Mitchell rant about naming your child: "Fundamentally names aren't actually important. As clunky and awkward as something is you get used to it after the 3rd or 4th time you hear it and it just becomes the name for that thing". His point was that a person has to reintroduce themselves constantly over the course of their lives and that causes them to constantly relive that moment of awkwardness being a cruel burden.

In this instance however I kinda feel the temporary name change for a couple weeks a season actually does more for the conversation, awareness and sharing the cultures than a permanent change does. It forces us to relive that moment of clunky awkwardness of the change, which reignites and drives active and passive learning of the different culture. Having a permanent name change, regardless of intent, will just actively hurt people and cause deep division and then just become "the name of that thing". What once represented an expression of genuine good faith becomes a symbol of the core divisions we have as a society on a day to day basis.

I dunno, I'm interested to hear the thoughts of the Walyalup people for whose history this represents and hear both why they like it and/or why they dont.

 

[Raz]

If I was to change anything it would be just dropping the Dockers nickname.

It's an eastern states name for a wharfie and I find very few of our supporters actually use it.

About the only positive is that it's not as bad as the 'Power'.

Sadly having grown up in Western Australia i only ever knew the Dock workers were Dockers. Reason is that is the Word used in England for Wharf workers and Perth had so many English heritage people as i grew up. So it was only word i heard.

So no please dont drop the term DOCKERs.

For myself and all the fellow supporters i have associated with we usally cheer come on DOCKERS mostly, occasioanly it is comeon FREO.

But each to their own.

 

[King Huskii]

The wheels are already in motion for joint names

 

[Randomizor]

Fremantle-Walyalup is too much of a mouthful. I suspect people would call us FWD (while mocking our lack of a FWD line). Just like GWS. Or WFD (which sounds like some abomination of WWF, WMD, WD-40) if you switched the order. Or simply Dockers. Nobody is going to waste time with a long winded team name when it can be abbreviated to something else.

Wanting the name Walyalup to be part of the official team name is a futile exercise unless you dropped Fremantle completely and permanently, and that would be a massive no from a huge majority of the supporter base.

If you want to do something, then I think the best place is to incorporate it into our jumper. Such as the bottom panel as seen on the 2024 indigenous jumper. Maybe change our jumper to an indigenous one for every round. Or at least more often (maybe alternate seasons or games for example). Perhaps the more simple 3 boomerang version from 2013 (our first indigenous jumper), and then still have a separate one for John Nicholls rounds with more elaborate artwork.

Speaking of which I would absolutely be for us changing our logo to the one we used these past couple of weeks. Much better than the current one that I can only presume the CEO’s kid whipped up in Paint one weekend?

 

[_007_]

As a compromise I propose Walyantle or Fremalup

 

[FreoGirl]

As a compromise I propose Walyantle or Fremalup

or Flagmantle

 

[Bigger]

The Cockburn Frenulums.

 

[sabre_ac]

I'd prefer we worked on a new song first...

While not being from Fremantle, I've always appreciated/respected tieing clubs to cities/towns/suburbs. Happy to have some form of indigenous recognition within the team's brand, whether that be name or otherwise. I'd prefer we kept Fremantle as the first part of the name.

 

[poshman]

Maybe I am wrong and I stand corrected if I am. But maybe your friends are of thd younger age group.
I am sure the more senior elders would understand the name.

From about 30-65 and they don't use the word for the area or to identify themselves and a large group hadn't heard the word before.

To be fair that second part isn't completely unusual given there is a language loss and gap even between the people of the hills and cockburn.

 

[poshman]

Not the Elders i speak to. they never use the name. They know the name , but it not the name of thier mob so they dont want it to be used to cover all of them.

Yep the mob I chatted to at food distribution disliked it and thought it was silly. They mocked me for saying the name on indigenous round weeks. But they mock me about a lot of things and it is hilarious fun!

 

[muckypup]

That logo we use for SDN round is easily the best footy logo of all time. I want a black t-shirt with that logo, not interested in Walyalup, it sounds too much like Wally. I am a junkie for that logo, like Depeche Mode I just can't get enough. So much better than the normal one. Merch people come on. How hard is it to sort this stuff out.

 

[errant bounce]

I think it represents the clubs locale better tbh. Encompasses
The whole area, as opposed to one suburb.

Why does it need to?

People from Beaconsfield or even down to Kwinana, and those in Bicton even through to Booragoon would consider themselves more attached to Freo than Perth. but they still are not Freo.

People just want to include themselves in living in Freo when they actually don't. you can still associate yourself with a place.

 

[errant bounce]

Being very close to many indigenous peoplefrom the Southern Regions of Perth. Fremantle and down the coast.

I have never ever heard any of them use the term Walyalup for their mobs or their name of the land.

They do use many other names for their mobs.

So whilst it maybe used by some of the local mobs it is not representative of all of them

Yeah this is it. I grew up with more Noongar blokes than probably most of this forum and never heard it used. obviously nowhere near the same ratio of First Nations people, but I'd never heard of Naarm either.

I'm not some stupid racist or anything either, I believe First Nations people should get way more than 'they already do.' they were absolutely ****ed over and as harsh as it sounds, every few years I notice how few and few you see around. it's heartbreaking.

Heaps of stuff to do adopt from them – how to conduct burns, adopting their approach to the seasons.

But Walyalup is nonsense.

 

[mightymouse75]

Yeah this is it. I grew up with more Noongar blokes than probably most of this forum and never heard it used. obviously nowhere near the same ratio of First Nations people, but I'd never heard of Naarm either.

I'm not some stupid racist or anything either, I believe First Nations people should get way more than 'they already do.' they were absolutely ****ed over and as harsh as it sounds, every few years I notice how few and few you see around. it's heartbreaking.

Heaps of stuff to do adopt from them – how to conduct burns, adopting their approach to the seasons.

But Walyalup is nonsense.

Adopt burns, turning the country into a desert by not just killing the animal you are hunting but nuking anything in the area.
That worked out well didn't it.

 

[errant bounce]

Sadly having grown up in Western Australia i only ever knew the Dock workers were Dockers. Reason is that is the Word used in England for Wharf workers and Perth had so many English heritage people as i grew up. So it was only word i heard.

So no please dont drop the term DOCKERs.

For myself and all the fellow supporters i have associated with we usally cheer come on DOCKERS mostly, occasioanly it is comeon FREO.

But each to their own.

It's literally called the Fremantle wharf.

Even 'wharfie' is tenuous. I have family who actually worked on there. they were always referred to as 'working on the wharf' or 'working at the ports.'

 

[errant bounce]

Adopt burns, turning the country into a desert by not just killing the animal you are hunting but nuking anything in the area.
That worked out well didn't it.

Are you trying to say that's what the Indigenous people did? because they didn't...

They knew what to burn and when. Australia was basically vibrant greenery everywhere until the English started getting pissy about all the smoke around.

Aboriginals across Australia had a way of burning that actively maintained the fauna: they'd basically burn from an outward circle, so all the animals had time to run away basically.

If they 'nuked everything in the area' wouldn't they have died out, like, a few thousand years into the 65,000 or so they were here for?

Australia has some of the oldest animals in existence. it's not like the kangaroo just came out of nowhere when the Poms came.

Blahdy hell.

 

[james haish]

Are you trying to say that's what the Indigenous people did? because they didn't...

They knew what to burn and when. Australia was basically vibrant greenery everywhere until the English started getting pissy about all the smoke around.

Aboriginals across Australia had a way of burning that actively maintained the fauna: they'd basically burn from an outward circle, so all the animals had time to run away basically.

If they 'nuked everything in the area' wouldn't they have died out, like, a few thousand years into the 65,000 or so they were here for?

Australia has some of the oldest animals in existence. it's not like the kangaroo just came out of nowhere when the Poms came.

Blahdy hell.

The megafauna of Australia disappeared not long after the indigenous arrived. The idea they lived in perfect harmony with the environment is a noble savage myth.

 

[FreoMonocle]

The Noongars I knew were happy to use a few Noongar terms (particularly Wadjela in mine and others directions ). If they cared one iota about Walyalup, they would have said they were jumping on the train to Walyalup and never, ever did, they went to Fremantle.

If you loved your Bulldogs or Sharks, you loved and breathed Fremantle and that held true for generations of Indigenous Australians in the Fremantle area just as it did for the various wadjela's (and others) who grew up singing it's praise. "Walyalup" is just a cynical AFL marketing ploy, sadly one with a chance of causing division where there was absolutely none, which kinda defeats the purpose of Indigenous round.

 

[FreoMonocle]

But the 2nd thought bubble on the topic...

We don't own the club, The WAFC do. Maybe, they'd put it to a membership vote as they did with the song, but, the song would not have seen a loss of membership subscriptions and paraphenalia. I follow Fremantle Dockers, primarily because I have memories from the 70s of walking every day through Freo in summer holidays when staying at my dads, including a few rambles out at the docks at night, "Walyalup" has no association for me, I'd probably not renew my membership but be happy if saw Walyalup get a win. Most people have no affiliation with "Walyalup" to tie them to the club.

I think the number crunchers involved at Fremantle/WAFC/AFL would be wary of losing too many subscriptions and I highly doubt a name change to Walyalup would of itself bring in lot's of new subscriptions to replace the lost subscriptions. So I can't see it happening, the league loves it's money.

 

[JeffreyCC]

Yes

 

[Purple Suit]

The wheels are already in motion for joint names

Really? Having three names would be extra long and clunky. It is just unnecessary. I like the name change for two weeks but I also like Freo.

It would be like hyphenating a surname name. What happens when we merge with another hyphenated team? 4 names?

 

[errant bounce]

But the 2nd thought bubble on the topic...

We don't own the club, The WAFC do. Maybe, they'd put it to a membership vote as they did with the song, but, the song would not have seen a loss of membership subscriptions and paraphenalia. I follow Fremantle Dockers, primarily because I have memories from the 70s of walking every day through Freo in summer holidays when staying at my dads, including a few rambles out at the docks at night, "Walyalup" has no association for me, I'd probably not renew my membership but be happy if saw Walyalup get a win. Most people have no affiliation with "Walyalup" to tie them to the club.

I think the number crunchers involved at Fremantle/WAFC/AFL would be wary of losing too many subscriptions and I highly doubt a name change to Walyalup would of itself bring in lot's of new subscriptions to replace the lost subscriptions. So I can't see it happening, the league loves it's money.

Ah those famous Fremantle docks...

 

[mightymouse75]

There are a hell of a lot of indigenous named places before woke culture ever came to pass.
At a minimum, every place ending with up down south ie yallingup, joondalup. Places ending with wa in the Midwest such as morawa, mullewa.
Keep it simple. We are the Fremantle Dockers.

 

[Kram]

There are a hell of a lot of indigenous named places before woke culture ever came to pass.
At a minimum, every place ending with up down south ie yallingup, joondalup. Places ending with wa in the Midwest such as morawa, mullewa.
Keep it simple. We are the Fremantle Dockers.

And all the wheatbelt towns ending in 'in'.