Based on a Christmas day discussion with my family, the opinion piece in PerthNow once again came up. I had already forgotten about this, but I was required to listen to these opinions. Did it irk me at the time? I guess so, but really, I just found humour in this article, laughed about it for a day and then put it out of my mind.

So I thought I might as well write about this now, since I was reminded and it was on my mind again. I was highly critical of the article as this was a self-indulgent ramble that had little to do with the match actually played. I am aware this was an opinion piece; however, this article did not present PerthNow in the most positive light.

These were not the same teams playing as depicted in the news article, the circumstances were different as there was 41 point [7 goals] comeback. Her choice was the grand final her team played in some 16 years before that did not involve a massive comeback. The two games bore no resemblance whatsoever, it was just the team she supports – nothing more.

The AFL match was the Fremantle Football Club v the Western Bulldogs Football Club, a mismatch of sorts based on the form of both teams. This was an elimination final held at Perth’s Optus Oval, Fremantle had only just missed out on a top four finish, the Western Bulldogs were lucky to make the finals. It was 5th position v 8th position with one team unlucky to finish outside the top four, the other team lucky to finish in the top eight. The Western Bulldogs played in the 2021 Grand Final, so they were down on form but had momentum.

The reporter was Elisia Seeber, a dedicated West Coast Eagles supporter, no issues here, she is free to support whomever she wants as I don’t diss supporters of other teams. This is what makes AFL games great, supporters are not segregated, we are all mixed in together and it makes viewing the game fun with some light-hearted banter between supporters.

Prior to the Fremantle Dockers entering the AFL competition in 1995, we pretty much all supported the West Coast Eagles in Western Australia – we were a one team town. So we resembled the traitors she described in her article, we changed allegiance when the new team was formed in Fremantle. This is all part of the cross town rivalry, this is a bit of fun and is taken with the humour intended.

As the West Coast Eagles were established close to a decade before Fremantle, they had numerous advantages in establishing a supporter base, had access to the pick of Western Australian talent and were financially secure after albeit a shaky start. Fremantle was established without these first-mover benefits and had to work much harder to establish a supporter base. What came out of those beginnings was a smaller but fiercely loyal supporter base.

As such, the supporter base of the Fremantle Football Club is significantly smaller than the West Coast Eagles, about half the supporters. However, the Fremantle supporters are much more passionate than West Coast supporters as the club endured hardship in their early years. West Coast enjoys the support of Seven West Media, the owners of the Seven Broadcasting Network, The West Australian Newspaper and PerthNow newspaper as a high profile sponsor. So a self-indulgent opinion article that was really about the West Coast Eagles is pretty normal for the one-sided media coverage in Western Australia.

I reviewed Elisia’s profile on PerthNow, she was writing articles for PerthNow and her general journalism appeared competent, there did not seem to be any bias in her reporting. I was genuinely surprised her editor let this slip through without a rewrite, possibly a deadline prevented this. In a bout of irony, Elisia is the niece of my sister’s friend, so my sister knows her and my critique of her opinion article is not personal, I knew her aunt too and would babysit her son on occasions – that was some time ago.

For the next couple of years after Fremantle joined the competition I attended both Fremantle and West Coast games as I worked away in the mines back when we did long stints away. I would attend a game when I was in the city, that was pretty rare though. I fully changed over to Fremantle when I worked out Fremantle supporters were totally dedicated and West Coast supporters were arrogant and fickle. One game was fun to attend [even a loss] and one was just draining when they won, a loss was absolutely unbearable.

All it would have taken was a single sentence to tell the readers was she was not a Fremantle supporter, but a West Coast Eagles supporter who was offered free tickets to this final. We have no reason to doubt her dedication to her team, no one questioned her allegiance. This is where the article became biased. I absolutely accept she was writing about a game she attended as a neutral supporter, the basic premise of the viewpoint is fine, it was just the actual writing that failed.

The issue is not that she is a dedicated West Coast Eagles supporter, it was the lengths of the article dating back to the 2006 grand final, this included a photograph of her as a young girl with her face painted in her team’s colours at a party she was not supposed to attend. This accounted for approximately 70% of the article that was not related to the game she was covering. This was nostalgia, something that WestCoast fans are famous for.

When she told me her friend had spare tickets, I wasn’t expecting to be sitting in section 111, 16 rows up from the oval among diehard fans, the ones with their headphones in listening to talkback radio and looking through binoculars. I had assumed I’d be in the bleachers. What I can say is that I have never booed another team or player, if an opposition player takes a spectacular mark or kicks a freakish goal I applaud the opposition player and team as I appreciate the skill required to achieve this feat, Elisia would have seen this too.

She was describing us, to the left of her beer is my father, she was nearly correct as he has headphones on but was listening to the commentary on 720 ABC. To the right of her beer was myself, I was there with the binoculars so I could follow in detail all aspects of the game. I love the tactics of AFL football, I like to watch match-ups, rotations and the field positioning.

I turned to the old man in the middle of the second quarter when I felt the momentum shift even though Fremantle had not scored any goals yet. But you could feel Fremantle had increased the pressure, their contest was better and their field positioning had improved. Yes, some match-ups changed and the intensity had significantly increased.

I was glad Elisia was there to see this comeback in an elimination final, we always thought we would win as Fremantle’s recent form was plagued by slow starts, we never doubted a comeback. I had turned to my old man and mentioned to him when we were 7 goals down that we had better get started soon before this total becomes unmanageable. We had better not allow too many more goals through before we got on the scoreboard.

We were calm, no negative comments, we just discussed the technical areas where the team needed to improve. We also discussed what we needed to do with the people in front of us, we had only just met them, but a game is also a social event and we have a common interest. They were a young couple there with her mother, she was really a full on supporter, her enthusiasm was really out there, her boyfriend was more subdued. When I discussed tactics with my old man, he would turn around and join in and give an opinion too – it was a good night.

Three beers down, and I was yelling, “Do your job, Lobb,” with the fans in the row in front of me and chanting “Freeee-oooooohhhh” with the rest of them. I am genuinely happy Elisia had a good time at the game, she was describing us, my old man wanted Rory Lobb to do what he was highly paid to do, I was the one chanting out loud. Fremantle started slowly, the Western Bulldogs were off to a wonderful start, we never thought we were out of the contest, we just felt the comeback needed to be epic – it was.