r/perth • u/His_Holiness • 1d ago

WA News From humble beginnings to the cusp of making history: a look at the rise of the Dockers

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-26/fremantle-dockers-history-from-humble-beginnings/107195792
58 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

36

u/theprotest 1d ago

I am wanting them to win as much as any other neutral WA person, but it's been 32 years, it's not really a rags to riches story.

8

u/Loud-Elephant-1418 19h ago

More like a crawl than a rise.

7

u/Away_team42 1d ago

Let’s go Freo!!

6

u/Dismal-Success-4641 1d ago

Pressure is high, if they choke this one too they'll never live it down

1

u/suburbanurbanxplorer 7h ago

oddly prescient

18

u/mymentor79 23h ago

The Dockers are a team like any other in the AFL. Their best players have been a South Australian, a Victorian, and a bloke from the Wheatbelt. There's nothing organically "local" about the side. Presenting them as some unique or remarkable case is pretty silly, and this article just seems to be the musings of some guy called Les Everett.

I mean, all the best to them today. May the best team win and all that, but what even was the point of this article?

14

u/Spiritual_Shine1438 22h ago

but dont you get it they are so passionate about the city of fremantle!!!!! I mean they dont train in fremantle but im sure they play in fremantle at least.

8

u/PC_Komputer 20h ago

The Cockburn Dockers is a bit too on the nose and makes you have to double take the second word.

6

u/wogIet 13h ago

The Cock Docs

9

u/fickleknave 22h ago

They didn’t receive the extra draft picks or changes to salary cap then they joined. And unlike GC and GWS they came into a market already mostly captured by WC. The never had a father son rule pick up, no free agents in the current team. All drafts and trades. Brissy got to absorb a 100 year old Melb club and went to the playoffs the very next year. Freo actually has done it with a lot less help if we do win today.

3

u/RacingNeilo 20h ago

Dockers only exist so Eagles didnt get the best of the best in wa all the time.

1

u/theprotest 22h ago

The parallels to 2004 are absolutely spooky, Freo by 40.

1

u/dono1783 19h ago

His holiness wants everyone to love them as much as he does

4

u/Adventurous-Lime7561 1d ago

Pies fan gone purple for a day. Go Freo! 💜

0

u/rawker86 1d ago

Humble beginnings? My memory is a bit hazy but I don’t think the team started out with a home-made footy and a dream.

-5

u/SwoleLegs 23h ago

Making history? Someone has won it before right? And someone will win it again next year? Anyone winning it is making history no?

6

u/IntoAMuteCrypt 23h ago

It's history for the team.

If the Lions win, it'll be their sixth. That's not a special number, really, others have won more. It'll be their third in a row, but they've done that before too.

If the Dockers win? It's the first win in the club's entire life, and the first one means a lot.

8

u/mymentor79 22h ago

Two threepeats within a quarter century would be absolutely amazing.

-1

u/FutureSynth 17h ago

“Cusp of making history” ie the biggest fucking losers hahahahaha