It occurred to me how ironic it was, that the one coach that did not promise September action is the one to get us there, and before schedule too if you don't mind! Every year I would say to my friends with optimism, "This is the year, boys! I can feel it in my bones." But every season this would prove mere hot air as once again I would be going over Nine's Wide World of Sports Cricketing Trivia Encyclopaedia at this time of year. This year however was different. After 8 consecutive disappointments, my optimism had been beaten out of me. Even the coaxing of my friends could not get me to say, "We're making the finals for sure this time!" Because the truth was I didn't believe we could. I looked at the 16 other teams and found at least 8 I rated better than the Dockers.

The fatalist in me regards this 9 year process as God's way of teaching us Dockers supporters some humility. Only when we no longer promised ourselves finals glory would it come. And this is exactly what happened. Eight seasons of misery was quite a harsh way to teach this but then again Mr. Big does operate in mysterious and sometimes malicious ways. But the truth is the past eight seasons, while ultimately disappointing, were tremendous fun. I think that is why the Dockers supporter base is so resilient. Win, lose or draw, watching a team we can call our own, representing the City of Fremantle, running around in purple and doing all sorts of zany stuff (Andrew Wills and Winston Abraham spring to mind), was great fun!

In addition, the modest crowds of 25,000 were excellent for my prospects of buying a beer without an extraordinary line to deal with. Even in this season of unprecedented success, my uncle and I joke about how we miss the good old days when the team was crap and the line was short! The price too for the final to be played this Friday is much higher than what we are used to. Thirty three dollars for a student is a massive ask and most of Freo's working class supporters would be thinking the same thing. It's just as well we haven't made it before because we all have had nine years to save up for this day! So long as we only make the finals every nine years then my uncle and I can live with it!......

Being a Freo supporter now means something different. No longer will we be ridiculed at parties with the line, "Your mob haven't even made the finals." This I assure is a great relief, because it happened a hell of a lot. Now I suppose the line to come from Eagles fanatics, "You haven't made a preliminary final, or you haven't won a premiership and we won one within 6 years of our history!" But, that I can deal with. That bar is acceptably high. It was being the only club never to have played a final which was the embarrassment.

Who knows how far this team can go? Without doubt players discover what they are made of in the heat of finals football. Maybe as soon as October, people around the football world will be mentioning players of the Fremantle variety in the same breath as finals greats Brereton, Hird, Mcleod, Ayres, Ablett and the like and that is a tantalising prospect. May the forges of 9 years of misery make iron sturdy enough to withstand the pressure and go all the way. I'll be watching McManus and Parker closely on Friday, their pain is my pain and every supporters pain, they are our on field conduit and they better stick it right up the Bombers! Go DOCKERS!

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