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2012 – the year Freo grew up?
Turning 18 is typically seen as a turning point in a person’s life, marking the transition from carefree childhood to responsibility-laden adulthood. You’re suddenly allowed to drink, gamble and do all the other fun stuff adults deny of children. Not too much fun though, because 18 is also the age you get thrown into jail for stuff that used to be shrugged off as boys being boys. Sleeping with schoolgirls being one example.
You may think that last line was a segue into an article about the St Kilda Football Club, but we aren’t here to talk about them, not directly anyway. We’re here to talk Freo.
It’s fitting that Fremantle are about to enter their 18th season on the back of a drama filled off-season where they finally announced their arrival as a serious player on the AFL scene. For better or worse the ruthless treatment of Mark Harvey and the equally ruthless coup to snare Ross Lyon from right under the Saints noses bared all the hallmarks of a club that has finally grown up.
And not before time either, for Fremantle has always come across as a kid just happy making up the numbers, never truly confident enough to believe they were capable of anything more. In fact, the entire evolution of the club has followed a remarkably similar path to your average person growing up.
We begin of course in the early years of childhood, those glorious carefree days when you don’t have a care in the world. The Neesham years. You’d wear whatever clothes you were given and you wouldn’t care, fashion wasn’t important at that age. Neither was winning, which was just as well since Freo hadn’t exactly mastered that art yet. Nobody cared though, like any childhood everything was fresh and exciting and just being alive was intoxicating enough. The realities of life hadn’t dawned on us yet. But they soon would, and with a bang too.
Because like any child we soon hit those dreaded days of early puberty. Those awkward, frustrating years when desires start emerging that you’re too physically and emotionally immature to turn into reality. We started to feel the passion for winning rising, but our scrawny, uncoordinated frame was incapable of delivering us anything but taunting and shame. We call these the Drum years. Beaten down by reality we sat in the corner fantasising about the day we would be like the suave premiership winning teams we saw smiling their toothy grins on television and in magazines.
Then came the brash teen years. We started having a little success, makin’ a little money, confidence started to flow. It was only a matter of time before we became world-beaters and we weren’t afraid to let people know. We knew everything, or so we thought. But we began to make the same mistake all teens do – we became preoccupied with chasing tail. For the first time in our lives we were attractive and the thrill of the chase became so all-consuming we forgot self-improvement from within was more important to our goals than chasing conquest after conquest. We call these the Schwabbolly years.
Predictably, as with most teens, our results never quite matched the size of our egos, which lead us to the Harvey era. That age where you finally start to develop some self awareness and attempt to learn from mistakes you made in the past. Finally the body was beginning to reach the potential of adulthood, only a lack of wisdom and experience holding us back. The flesh was willing but the mind was weak - the squad looked good but the brains trust controlling them was suspect.
Which brings us back to the premise of this article – Fremantle saw a weakness in themselves and acted decisively. Ruthlessly even. The mark of an adult who has finally realised the world isn’t all sunshine and lollipops. An adult who finally realises it takes hard, often unpopular, decisions to make it to the top.
All this adds up to a preseason of unprecedented optimism for Freo supporters (and Freo supporters know a thing or two about preseason optimism). For the first time there is a experienced proven taskmaster in charge and the professionalism emanating out of Freo Oval is far beyond what has been witnessed before.
This writer* predicts a top 4 finish imminent in 2012 with just our second ever prelim on the cards. Ambitious? Probably… but ambition is what separates the men from the boys.
*make no mistake, if this scribe should happen to win $25 for this article he will take it as a licence to spend the rest of his days trying to pick up women by impressing them with his credentials as professional writer, George Costanza style. Likely with similar results
Turning 18 is typically seen as a turning point in a person’s life, marking the transition from carefree childhood to responsibility-laden adulthood. You’re suddenly allowed to drink, gamble and do all the other fun stuff adults deny of children. Not too much fun though, because 18 is also the age you get thrown into jail for stuff that used to be shrugged off as boys being boys. Sleeping with schoolgirls being one example.
You may think that last line was a segue into an article about the St Kilda Football Club, but we aren’t here to talk about them, not directly anyway. We’re here to talk Freo.
It’s fitting that Fremantle are about to enter their 18th season on the back of a drama filled off-season where they finally announced their arrival as a serious player on the AFL scene. For better or worse the ruthless treatment of Mark Harvey and the equally ruthless coup to snare Ross Lyon from right under the Saints noses bared all the hallmarks of a club that has finally grown up.
And not before time either, for Fremantle has always come across as a kid just happy making up the numbers, never truly confident enough to believe they were capable of anything more. In fact, the entire evolution of the club has followed a remarkably similar path to your average person growing up.
We begin of course in the early years of childhood, those glorious carefree days when you don’t have a care in the world. The Neesham years. You’d wear whatever clothes you were given and you wouldn’t care, fashion wasn’t important at that age. Neither was winning, which was just as well since Freo hadn’t exactly mastered that art yet. Nobody cared though, like any childhood everything was fresh and exciting and just being alive was intoxicating enough. The realities of life hadn’t dawned on us yet. But they soon would, and with a bang too.
Because like any child we soon hit those dreaded days of early puberty. Those awkward, frustrating years when desires start emerging that you’re too physically and emotionally immature to turn into reality. We started to feel the passion for winning rising, but our scrawny, uncoordinated frame was incapable of delivering us anything but taunting and shame. We call these the Drum years. Beaten down by reality we sat in the corner fantasising about the day we would be like the suave premiership winning teams we saw smiling their toothy grins on television and in magazines.
Then came the brash teen years. We started having a little success, makin’ a little money, confidence started to flow. It was only a matter of time before we became world-beaters and we weren’t afraid to let people know. We knew everything, or so we thought. But we began to make the same mistake all teens do – we became preoccupied with chasing tail. For the first time in our lives we were attractive and the thrill of the chase became so all-consuming we forgot self-improvement from within was more important to our goals than chasing conquest after conquest. We call these the Schwabbolly years.
Predictably, as with most teens, our results never quite matched the size of our egos, which lead us to the Harvey era. That age where you finally start to develop some self awareness and attempt to learn from mistakes you made in the past. Finally the body was beginning to reach the potential of adulthood, only a lack of wisdom and experience holding us back. The flesh was willing but the mind was weak - the squad looked good but the brains trust controlling them was suspect.
Which brings us back to the premise of this article – Fremantle saw a weakness in themselves and acted decisively. Ruthlessly even. The mark of an adult who has finally realised the world isn’t all sunshine and lollipops. An adult who finally realises it takes hard, often unpopular, decisions to make it to the top.
All this adds up to a preseason of unprecedented optimism for Freo supporters (and Freo supporters know a thing or two about preseason optimism). For the first time there is a experienced proven taskmaster in charge and the professionalism emanating out of Freo Oval is far beyond what has been witnessed before.
This writer* predicts a top 4 finish imminent in 2012 with just our second ever prelim on the cards. Ambitious? Probably… but ambition is what separates the men from the boys.
*make no mistake, if this scribe should happen to win $25 for this article he will take it as a licence to spend the rest of his days trying to pick up women by impressing them with his credentials as professional writer, George Costanza style. Likely with similar results
