The western derby has ignited such a religious fervour in West Coast and Fremantle fans it has made the rivalry one of the most volatile in Australian sport.
The open disdain Fremantle and West Coast supporters (and players) have had for each other over the years is so uncompromising it defies rational explanation.
The Demolition Derby was a low point in the Eagles Dockers rivalry.Credit: Iain Gillespie
If any of my three kids abruptly announced they decided to barrack for Fremantle, I would calmly pack their bags and pin a note on them, “saying free to good Dockers’ home”.
The hatred between Freo and the Eagles has been unremitting for almost 30 years, but lately, I’ve noticed that the fizz and sparkle have vanished from fans and even players before matches.
Ahead of western derby 60 this Sunday, the dysfunctional disunity in offices and on socials has all but disappeared between the devotees of both sides.
Usually, my phone and social media would explode with indecipherable texts from politicians, business owners, friends, family, and even the priest from the local parish, who had recently started worshipping the Dockers.
As of Thursday, before the game, I’ve heard nothing.
Maybe it’s because both teams haven’t played finals for a few years so followers can’t be bothered mustering up any distemper with no success in sight.
It could also be that Fremantle fans have been silenced into submission after the club decided to play the worst pop song in the last 25 years – Coldplay’s Viva La Diva – after every goal at Optus Stadium.
Whatever it is, the bitter resentment has gone out of the relationship.
There is a good chance the dislike is more palpable and nastier between the two clubs when West Coast is winning. The Dockers have that lingering anxiety about beating their crosstown rivals because they were so brutishly browbeaten from the start.
But even the most hardened and loyal fans could never predict the intense grudge that would emerge from that first outing.
And it was all thanks to the Eagles’ original enforcer John Worsfold.
With the game only a few minutes old, Woosha flattened Fremantle’s Scott Chisholm with a menacing ferocity rarely seen on the footy field since.
A malevolent tribalism was awoken.
Legendary commentator Dennis Cometti elegantly summed up the sudden bitterness that erupted between supporters by saying “John Worsfold, helping people determine which side they barrack for”.
Worsfold then proceeded to wallop every Dockers player like a sugar-fuelled kid playing Whac-A-Mole.
For a brief, terrifying moment, I thought the Eagles captain was going to leap into the crowd and belt anyone wearing purple.
He single-handedly inflicted a psychological scar so deep into the entrails of Dockers players and their followers, psychiatrists started to do a roaring trade in Fremantle.
Out of that first meeting sprang a spiteful and spicy rivalry that us sport-loving Sandgropers didn’t see coming.
There was an almost sectarian stupidity to the revulsion supporters of each club harboured for each other.
But there is a bit of history.
For the first nine derbies, the Eagles faithful dined out the mishaps and misery of the Docker’s misfortunes, as Fremantle was continuing bullied by West Coast.
Then in the second game of 1999, the Dockers drew the line in the sand, winning their first derby by 47 points.
The balance of power was flipped.
Then-Dockers coach Damian Drum said his players had been pushed around by the big boys up the road for too long.
“For them to want to stand up and do something about it, I think that is fantastic,” he said.
Long-suffering Fremantle supporters had finally gotten their revenge.
The following season, that burgeoning, rapacious relationship between supporters soured further after the infamous Demolition Derby.
There were rumours before the match that the Dockers players had hatched plans to beat the living bejesus out of the Eagles.
Something must have spooked West Coast ruckman Michael Gardiner because he began wildly swinging at first-year player Matthew Pavlich.
Dale Kickett had seen enough. He ignited a series of brawls and barneys that left half of the Eagles players dazed, confused and petrified.
West Coast fans were furious and unforgiving. Fremantle supporters were secretly delighted.
The game had become so explosive and unpredictable that it looked like both coaches’ benches were going to trade blows at three-quarter time. Kids were shunted out of the ground for their own protection.
West Coast’s enraged entourage was left mute after the Dockers stormed home to win after being 47 points down. It was hard to be angered by the Freo fan’s delirious stupor.
Then along came social media and the insults and baiting took a vicious turn during a game in 2007, when Fremantle hard nut Josh Carr tried to push Eagles’ Daniel Kerr into the stands at Subiaco Oval via the fence. Police descended on the Dockers dugout as West Coast fans hurled plastic bottles, potatoes and even a pie at Carr.
Given how stale and hard the pies were in those days, if it did collect Carr on the head, he would’ve missed the next six weeks of footy with concussion.
Things got uglier when Andrew Gaff savagely punched Andrew Brayshaw in round 20, 2018, it detonated a discharge of derision on social media that was unrelenting and mercifully directed towards him from the Freo family.
It appeared a baleful brinksmanship was cemented for good.
But lately, the mocking and dissing has quietened. A cold war has descended on both clubs and fans.
A bemusing blissfulness has replaced hostility.
The derby seems to have lost its shine. Which is odd given both clubs are currently cuddling up to each other at the bottom of the ladder.
I’m not suggesting both clubs recreate Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle, but something needs to happen to fire up both teams.
Or maybe it is now, just another game.
