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I still haven’t heardNo email yet haha
I still haven’t heard
Wow. To a tee. That’s brilliant. And by Daniels too.Ryan Daniels: It’s time Dockers repay purple army faith
Ryan DanielsThe West Australian
Friday, 29 May 2020 4:48PM
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear pants with Nat Fyfe’s face on them.
I’ll explain.
I met Marilyn Smith last week, a long-time Freo member and part of the Sirens — a group of women more loyal to the Dockers than Alfred was to Batman.
Marilyn’s choice of attire for the day was the aforementioned pants. Fyfe’s mug painted on one leg, Connor Blakely on the other. True dedication.
We crossed paths at a press conference — Fremantle President Dale Alcock was announcing the club’s plan to give away a house. Sort of.
Innovative. Clever. Even brilliant.
With their backs against the financial wall, the Dockers hierarchy got to thinking.
They needed their members’ money — more than ever. They couldn’t give them what they’d promised — their bum in a seat at Optus Stadium every second week.
How could they stop 50,000 people from asking for a refund? How would they avoid becoming the next Fitzroy? How would they survive?
Passionate fans show their support before the clash with Collingwood. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Media
Enter Alcock. The builder known by all West Australians — at last count his company had constructed more than 21,000 homes. There’s every chance you or someone you know lives in one.
Alcock and his board came up with the idea to give away one of those homes — a display house — along with a bunch of other stuff. A mega draw. For every hundred dollars that members pledged, they’d get a ticket in the draw. There are other specifics, but they’re not important here. It was a genius idea, one that no other club in Freo’s situation has matched. Well done. Tick.
Football clubs are built by the members. They journey through Loyalty, Hope, Anguish, Pain, Endurance and, hopefully, Joy.
Star players are important — you need someone to put on a poster. Someone for the kids to mimic — a number to iron on to the back of a new guernsey — a 7, a 10, a 29.
A great coach is crucial — there’s a reason Alastair Clarkson will have a statue outside the MCG one day and it’s not for his exploits as a scrappy half-forward.
But it’s the members — their identity shapes a club — and Fremantle’s members have done it tough.
They should be sick of it. Somehow though, they’re not.
The hits have kept coming.
Locked out Fremantle fans cheers on through the fence during the 2020 AFLW Semi Final.Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos
Gerard Neesham didn’t like Andrew McLeod’s earring.
Trade and draft blunders aplenty — like buying Trent Croad for the picks that netted Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell, then selling Croad back for cents on the dollar.
Anthony Morabito. Harley Bennell. Josh Simpson. Could’ve-beens that never were.
The members have heard it all — every empty cabinet joke, every Owen joke, every little brother jibe. For three decades they’ve been like the kid who works his butt off, goes to uni, becomes a dentist, buys a nice family home in the burbs — only to live permanently in the shadow of his older brother — a brain surgeon with a yacht and a palace in Cottesloe.
And yet they’re still here.
For 25 years Dockers fans have waited, hand on purple heart, imagination filled with hope, pockets emptied every March — that membership card with Peter Mann or Matthew Pavlich or Nat Fyfe would arrive a week before round one — and that year would surely be different. That year things would change. But it rarely did.
There have been moments. Ask any Freo fan to commentate the Stephen Hill stream down the Kardinia Park wing and they’ll nail every gazelle-like step.
Fyfe has been pure football ecstasy, from skinny prodigy to hulking Brownlow medal collector. Pavlich was a human anchor — keeping the club steady as constant storms swarmed around them.
There was that first derby win where Modra smacked the Subi turf, Clive’s demo derby masterclass, Ross taking on Brilliant Shane, and everything that led to the 2013 grand final — secretly a game the Dockers should’ve won. Don’t believe me? Go re-watch it.
These were moments and glimpses of goodness, but never of true greatness, that level reserved for champion teams.
Joel Hamling celebrates with the fans at Optus Stadium. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Media
I have plenty of mates who are long-time Freo members. I asked them this week to explain what that experience is like.
One bloke said supporting Fremantle is an opera: it is magnificent and tragic, but all in all a beautiful experience.
Another said you need a sense of humour — the highs are high but the lows very low.
A third says he’ll never give up — why would he? He’s come this far. When they achieve the ultimate success it will be even sweeter.
And that’s the crucial point.
Their support and loyalty are based on hope — that each scar will make the reward so much greater.
This whole experience must have a pay-off. It did for Footscray fans, it did for the Bloods, even for those Fitzroy supporters who are at peace with nine-tenths Brisbane. I’m sure the three-peat helped.
But what about Freo?
Here we are again. The Dockers are in crisis — this time a financial one. The members have stepped up in droves. I’m yet to talk to one who’s not pledging their money to the cause. Because that’s what they do. They step up.
For 25 years they’ve done just that. Sat in the rain at Subi, copped it from Eagles fans, sat on Pav’s shoulders, lived vicariously through Fyfe’s array of beanies and wondered ... would it ever be their turn?
This latest show of faith, the one that involves thousands of members giving up their money at a time when a lot of them probably don’t have much of it. This is the time for the Dockers to pay it back. For my mates, for Marilyn, the Sirens and every other bleeding purple heart.
No more goodness — they deserve true greatness.
Justin Longmuir, Simon Garlick, Peter Bell and Dale Alcock. Those four men need to do what none before them have done. Deliver the purple army a flag.
It won’t be this year, it won’t be next. But the dues have been paid, the debt too, literally.
There’s clear air, a promising list, Longmuir was a sought-after assistant coach for a reason — he’s young, clever, defensive minded and understands players. Garlick has runs on the board — in footy and in the private sector. Bell has turned everything he’s ever touched into gold. Alcock — well, you don’t build 21 thousand houses without having a clue.
Who knows? Maybe Marilyn will paint four new faces on a fresh pair of purple pants.
Sums us up to a teeWow. To a tee. That’s brilliant. And by Daniels too.
‘Ross taking on Brilliant Shane, and everything that led to the 2013 grand final — secretly a game the Dockers should’ve won. Don’t believe me? Go re-watch it.’
That’s the nightmare. Secretly, secretly. He summed up it so well .
‘One bloke said supporting Fremantle is an opera: it is magnificent and tragic, but all in all a beautiful experience.
Another said you need a sense of humour — the highs are high but the lows very low.’
Never ever imagined that analogy, but it’s perfect. Tragic yet beautiful, majestic at times.
Ryan Daniels: It’s time Dockers repay purple army faith
Ryan DanielsThe West Australian
Friday, 29 May 2020 4:48PM
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear pants with Nat Fyfe’s face on them.
I’ll explain.
I met Marilyn Smith last week, a long-time Freo member and part of the Sirens — a group of women more loyal to the Dockers than Alfred was to Batman.
Marilyn’s choice of attire for the day was the aforementioned pants. Fyfe’s mug painted on one leg, Connor Blakely on the other. True dedication.
We crossed paths at a press conference — Fremantle President Dale Alcock was announcing the club’s plan to give away a house. Sort of.
Innovative. Clever. Even brilliant.
With their backs against the financial wall, the Dockers hierarchy got to thinking.
They needed their members’ money — more than ever. They couldn’t give them what they’d promised — their bum in a seat at Optus Stadium every second week.
How could they stop 50,000 people from asking for a refund? How would they avoid becoming the next Fitzroy? How would they survive?
Passionate fans show their support before the clash with Collingwood. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Media
Enter Alcock. The builder known by all West Australians — at last count his company had constructed more than 21,000 homes. There’s every chance you or someone you know lives in one.
Alcock and his board came up with the idea to give away one of those homes — a display house — along with a bunch of other stuff. A mega draw. For every hundred dollars that members pledged, they’d get a ticket in the draw. There are other specifics, but they’re not important here. It was a genius idea, one that no other club in Freo’s situation has matched. Well done. Tick.
Football clubs are built by the members. They journey through Loyalty, Hope, Anguish, Pain, Endurance and, hopefully, Joy.
Star players are important — you need someone to put on a poster. Someone for the kids to mimic — a number to iron on to the back of a new guernsey — a 7, a 10, a 29.
A great coach is crucial — there’s a reason Alastair Clarkson will have a statue outside the MCG one day and it’s not for his exploits as a scrappy half-forward.
But it’s the members — their identity shapes a club — and Fremantle’s members have done it tough.
They should be sick of it. Somehow though, they’re not.
The hits have kept coming.
Locked out Fremantle fans cheers on through the fence during the 2020 AFLW Semi Final.Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos
Gerard Neesham didn’t like Andrew McLeod’s earring.
Trade and draft blunders aplenty — like buying Trent Croad for the picks that netted Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell, then selling Croad back for cents on the dollar.
Anthony Morabito. Harley Bennell. Josh Simpson. Could’ve-beens that never were.
The members have heard it all — every empty cabinet joke, every Owen joke, every little brother jibe. For three decades they’ve been like the kid who works his butt off, goes to uni, becomes a dentist, buys a nice family home in the burbs — only to live permanently in the shadow of his older brother — a brain surgeon with a yacht and a palace in Cottesloe.
And yet they’re still here.
For 25 years Dockers fans have waited, hand on purple heart, imagination filled with hope, pockets emptied every March — that membership card with Peter Mann or Matthew Pavlich or Nat Fyfe would arrive a week before round one — and that year would surely be different. That year things would change. But it rarely did.
There have been moments. Ask any Freo fan to commentate the Stephen Hill stream down the Kardinia Park wing and they’ll nail every gazelle-like step.
Fyfe has been pure football ecstasy, from skinny prodigy to hulking Brownlow medal collector. Pavlich was a human anchor — keeping the club steady as constant storms swarmed around them.
There was that first derby win where Modra smacked the Subi turf, Clive’s demo derby masterclass, Ross taking on Brilliant Shane, and everything that led to the 2013 grand final — secretly a game the Dockers should’ve won. Don’t believe me? Go re-watch it.
These were moments and glimpses of goodness, but never of true greatness, that level reserved for champion teams.
Joel Hamling celebrates with the fans at Optus Stadium. Credit: Daniel Carson/AFL Media
I have plenty of mates who are long-time Freo members. I asked them this week to explain what that experience is like.
One bloke said supporting Fremantle is an opera: it is magnificent and tragic, but all in all a beautiful experience.
Another said you need a sense of humour — the highs are high but the lows very low.
A third says he’ll never give up — why would he? He’s come this far. When they achieve the ultimate success it will be even sweeter.
And that’s the crucial point.
Their support and loyalty are based on hope — that each scar will make the reward so much greater.
This whole experience must have a pay-off. It did for Footscray fans, it did for the Bloods, even for those Fitzroy supporters who are at peace with nine-tenths Brisbane. I’m sure the three-peat helped.
But what about Freo?
Here we are again. The Dockers are in crisis — this time a financial one. The members have stepped up in droves. I’m yet to talk to one who’s not pledging their money to the cause. Because that’s what they do. They step up.
For 25 years they’ve done just that. Sat in the rain at Subi, copped it from Eagles fans, sat on Pav’s shoulders, lived vicariously through Fyfe’s array of beanies and wondered ... would it ever be their turn?
This latest show of faith, the one that involves thousands of members giving up their money at a time when a lot of them probably don’t have much of it. This is the time for the Dockers to pay it back. For my mates, for Marilyn, the Sirens and every other bleeding purple heart.
No more goodness — they deserve true greatness.
Justin Longmuir, Simon Garlick, Peter Bell and Dale Alcock. Those four men need to do what none before them have done. Deliver the purple army a flag.
It won’t be this year, it won’t be next. But the dues have been paid, the debt too, literally.
There’s clear air, a promising list, Longmuir was a sought-after assistant coach for a reason — he’s young, clever, defensive minded and understands players. Garlick has runs on the board — in footy and in the private sector. Bell has turned everything he’s ever touched into gold. Alcock — well, you don’t build 21 thousand houses without having a clue.
Who knows? Maybe Marilyn will paint four new faces on a fresh pair of purple pants.
Real refreshing reading it. Actually thought Ryan Daniels was Bazil Reincarnated. He’s been refreshingly different. Bazil and Barich probably won’t like itSums us up to a tee
I see even the non playing squad members are getting a 5 week holiday on the Gold Coast.
Is that why their asking my family who have been living off 60% of one wage to donate and ring up and beg for a refund?
don’t be fooled by tears of closure
It won’t happened
We live in a world of all business now even dentists and doctors use sale techniques.
By the way I feel like I donated when I bought my son a tot membership for $40 the other year and got $2 of Chinese made goods with no personalisation or year on it.
I’m a freo fan not a sponsor!
Poor form is asking people struggling to put food on the table to donate in this current climate because of club/league miss-management and over capitalisation.If that's your view, ask for a refund? It's not begging it is dealing with the reality of the situation.
I am on reduced wages having lost over 60% of my income and my choice is to donate my fee to the club.
To paint the club as the bad guy in this situation is pretty poor form in my opinion they have presented a range of options and if you remain unsatisfied then you can also choose to not renew next year as well.
Poor form is asking people struggling to put food on the table to donate in this current climate because of club/league miss-management and over capitalisation.
I’m only a vic member so I accept my money has gone.
It just riled me that after months of club obituaries they come out yesterday and say that even players that are injured and a snowflakes chance in hell of playing are travelling at a cost.
I’m sure there was a few eyebrows raised between the staff that got the Tijuana brass.
The cost to accommodate a squad member and their family if they choose would be enough to pay club staff a retainer instead of the lemon and sars
Agree. For those out there who haven't read Matt's book - try and track it down.Matt Price would be smiling up there somewhere
Poor form is asking people struggling to put food on the table to donate in this current climate because of club/league miss-management and over capitalisation.
I’m only a vic member so I accept my money has gone.
It just riled me that after months of club obituaries they come out yesterday and say that even players that are injured and a snowflakes chance in hell of playing are travelling at a cost.
I’m sure there was a few eyebrows raised between the staff that got the Tijuana brass.
The cost to accommodate a squad member and their family if they choose would be enough to pay club staff a retainer instead of the lemon and sars
It makes perfect sense just don’t want any more emails saying we’re done.How does the club know who is struggling and who isn't? Should they call everyone and ask them what their financial situation is prior to their offer to refund / donate to the club?
Again, no one HAS to donate. Members choose to.
Of course all players are going, The club is pretty much moving the entire footy department over there, it would make less sense to keep half a dozen players here when all the rehab staff will be in Queensland.
The club is handling the situation pretty well and will hopefully come out the other side of this with very little accrued debt. I have been pretty critical of Dale Alcock prior to this but he has done a great job considering the circumstances.
It makes perfect sense just don’t want any more emails saying we’re done.
I have family who whinge about no financials but smoke darts and drink Piss it infuriates me.
like banks wanting gov handouts and closing branches because they only made 250million profit for a quarter.
You acknowledge that the Club "asked you to donate", but you're acting like they "demanded you to pay". It was entirely voluntary and refunds were made available. If you didn't want to spend money on the club this year, then you didn't have to.Poor form is asking people struggling to put food on the table to donate in this current climate because of club/league miss-management and over capitalisation.
I’m only a vic member so I accept my money has gone.
It just riled me that after months of club obituaries they come out yesterday and say that even players that are injured and a snowflakes chance in hell of playing are travelling at a cost.
I’m sure there was a few eyebrows raised between the staff that got the Tijuana brass.
The cost to accommodate a squad member and their family if they choose would be enough to pay club staff a retainer instead of the lemon and sars