It’s the dream each Dockers supporter would like to see realised over the approaching weeks: Can Fremantle grow to be Flagmantle?
The hype is constructing for Freo’s much-anticipated return to the finals, and to rejoice, we’re taking an in-depth have a look at how the membership obtained thus far.
Within the third of our four-part ‘Flagmantle’ video sequence, we study the rise to an period of success that culminated in a minor premiership and a maiden grand remaining look with Ross Lyon on the helm.
WATCH THE FULL FLAGMANTLE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
“He turned them right into a feared crew within the AFL”.
That’s how The West Australian’s chief footy author Mark Duffield described Ross Lyon’s affect on the Dockers, because the port membership commanded the eye of rivals with a miserly defence that heralded their most profitable period.
The rise to that time had been regular, however not linear. Freo made their finals debut below Chris Connolly in entrance of a sold-out Subiaco Oval in 2003 towards Essendon, just for the Bombers to crash the celebration and romp to a 44-point win.
In 2006, Connolly led the membership to 3rd place, and after beating Melbourne to win their first ever finals match, they got here inside a sport of teeing up an all-WA grand remaining however succumbed to Sydney within the preliminary remaining.
Mark Harvey led them again to the promised land in 2010, after they gained an elimination remaining in week one towards Hawthorn earlier than falling to Geelong at Kardinya Park.
However the arrival of Lyon after they missed the finals in 2011 proved to be the ignition for 4 consecutive finals appearances – and at last, recognition as a drive to be reckoned with.
The high-water mark was the epic run to a 2013 grand remaining look. Stephen Hill memorably sealed a well-known victory towards Geelong at Kardinia Park, earlier than the Dockers squeezed the life out of Sydney, holding them to simply 14 factors within the first half, on their method to a maiden grand remaining berth.
Whereas Freo couldn’t beat Hawthorn to snare the cup, the membership captured the creativeness of the footy world and took over the sport’s heartland in Melbourne with a flood of purple that couldn’t be ignored.
“The march that we had with all of the purple going from the town to the MCG… the footage of that and being round that may by no means be forgotten,” Paul Hasleby mentioned.
“It was so particular to do it for the very first time.
“To return from the place we have been in 1995 to 2013 – the heartache, the ache – to get to that second and be so shut… it was bittersweet.”
WATCH THE FULL FLAGMANTLE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
… and atone for Components I and II under:
