Fremantle and West Coast rivalry

[SnapJack]

I met a Dockers supporter once. He was a good bloke. He said

" I've been following the club since they came into the competition since 1997 "

That's all I needed to know about their culture.

And I once met a Collingwood supporter without any teeth.

Good bloke though.

 

[Citizen Erazed]

Fierce rivalry spanning generations. Just recently I overheard the kids rolling out the "Eagles win, Dockers in the bin" chant. Pity about the Eagles winning part.

 

[BarbieITFC]

Fierce rivalry spanning generations. Just recently I overheard the kids rolling out the "Eagles win, Dockers in the bin" chant. Pity about the Eagles winning part.

I think that's a large part of it - most deep-rooted rivalries form in the playground in that age 8-14 phase - so it would only be people under 40 who would have truly experienced that.

Add to that the fact that the first sustained period when the Dockers won most derbies was 2007-2015; which means there isn't an Eagles fan over the age of about 32/33 who would have been subjected to playground abuse because the Dockers were in the ascendancy. Given the average age of an Eagles fan is about 65-70 then they just don't have the built-in hatred of Freo across the fan base compared to the way Freo fans feel about them after years of being looked down upon.

I've only lived here for 14 years and was in my late 30s when I started following the Dockers. I find the current plight of the Eagles deeply amusing (because of the general smugness of most Eagles fans I know) but I don't have a visceral hatred of the club. Whereas my 16 year old daughter celebrates an Eagles loss just as much as a Freo win.

Contrast that to the Adelaide rivalry, where Port came into the comp with a huge chip on their shoulder and over half the city already hating them from the SANFL - it's no surprise that the level of animosity between Crows and Port fans is much higher than for Freo/WC.

 

[amazingjoshy]

Ridiculously one sided, Freos irrelevancy makes them hard to hate.

All I take from this is that only 30% of the responders to that WC poll are true WC supporters

 

[Mighty Eagles]

Peaked in the Chris Connolly/John Worsfold days

As mentioned already, the two clubs desperately need to meet in a final. Bragging over regular season derby wins has become lame due to one of the teams always being a bit shit.

I actually think Drum was the greatest promoter of the rivalry.

Malthouse was pretty apathetic, and wasn’t one to be positive or speak events up, whereas Drum had raw hunger to beat West Coast.

 

[Mighty Eagles]

That being said, Eagles fans will love telling you how much Derbies don't mean anything to them until they're red in the face. Then become remarkably chirpy for weeks when they do win one.

That isn’t solely applicable to WC fans, I can assure you.

 

[Sully90]

That isn’t solely applicable to WC fans, I can assure you.

Of course not, but it's certainly Eagles fans who try and deny it the most. As this thread shows

 

[Freomaniac]

The 2 derbies that they stung us with the most were the last one of 2003 & the last one of 2007.

Win 2003 & WC still finish top 4 after a few weeks of fluffing our top 2 chances. Jeez the Eagles were looking nice there for a bit. Stinger of a season. Freo go & fluff it the next week at home v the Bombers. Double whammie. Thanks guys.

Next one was 2nd of 2007. Another dent in our top 2 aspirations. Carr brothers went hard for Cuzzy. Once again a let down season for the Purple so that was their GF. Cant blame them though. WC partied too hard that 06 Premiership after party, had to play the wire that year & the footy gods said NO!. A squad that really should have won more than one grand final.

Other than that we had the first 9 game winning streak then they gradually pegged it back. Then an 11 game winning streak & now they reeling that one back in too.

Massive shout outs to the second derby of 2015 just before the Purple People Eaters fell off the cliff and let us all down by blowing their home final for the second year in a row. Then Harleys first Derby. Those 2 games were pure gold.

Well dockers slowly dropped off In 2015 because the injuries hit. But ask the the hawks and eagles fans that they made the 2015 grand final against the odds

 

[The_Reaper]

I think that's a large part of it - most deep-rooted rivalries form in the playground in that age 8-14 phase - so it would only be people under 40 who would have truly experienced that.

Add to that the fact that the first sustained period when the Dockers won most derbies was 2007-2015; which means there isn't an Eagles fan over the age of about 32/33 who would have been subjected to playground abuse because the Dockers were in the ascendancy. Given the average age of an Eagles fan is about 65-70 then they just don't have the built-in hatred of Freo across the fan base compared to the way Freo fans feel about them after years of being looked down upon.

I've only lived here for 14 years and was in my late 30s when I started following the Dockers. I find the current plight of the Eagles deeply amusing (because of the general smugness of most Eagles fans I know) but I don't have a visceral hatred of the club. Whereas my 16 year old daughter celebrates an Eagles loss just as much as a Freo win.

Contrast that to the Adelaide rivalry, where Port came into the comp with a huge chip on their shoulder and over half the city already hating them from the SANFL - it's no surprise that the level of animosity between Crows and Port fans is much higher than for Freo/WC.

Yeah the average eagles member was probably married with kids when the dockers were founded