There’s a home away from home for the Purple Army some 18,000km from Freo thanks to one Dockers-loving couple setting up the Fremantle Farm outside of Lawrenceburg in Kentucky.
As well as being home to two of the most passionate overseas fans of the Club, the 94-acre Fremantle Farm is also home to a purple and white chicken coop that produces eggs that ‘taste like victory’, a dog called ‘Schultzy’ after Lachie Schultz and a cat named Bailey Banfield.
Running the show are expat West Aussie Greg Keeley and American partner Katie, who is a military nurse with the US Navy.
While Katie managed to get Greg – a former ABC radio broadcaster – to uproot his life and move to the States, Greg has managed to bring his love for all things Freo with him, with the Freo Dockers not only winning over Katie but the 11,000 population of Lawrenceburg as well.
“In our little town of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, it's a rural community and there's purple flags all over the place now, they're all part of the Kentucky Purple Army,” Greg said on the Final Siren Podcast with Duck and Oz.
“It's funny, when you show the game to Americans, they are shocked by how physical it is and Katie's nurse friends are shocked by how jacked the guys are! We've got a crew now that want to come and watch the footy with us.”
So much is their love for footy, that they watch every AFL game they can and go to extraordinary lengths to avoid spoilers.
“We watch through the AFL app and watch as many games as we possibly can. Literally, if there's a game on, we're watching it,” Katie said.
“We used to follow the freodockers Instagram, the players, everything, but we've had to unfollow it all.”
Greg added “we've had to ban my mother, Jenny who lives down in Yallingup, from having any contact with us on a weekend because she would just drop little hints.”
The pair were guests of the Club at Sunday’s game with Collingwood and recorded the podcast post-game in the Dennis Cometti Media Centre at Optus Stadium.
As well as working with Cometti when they were both at the ABC, Greg called games with some legends of WA football in George Grljusich, Ken Armstrong, Geoff Christian and Ian ‘Sticks’ Brayshaw – the grandfather of Andrew.
He called WAFL games, WAFL Grand Finals, early West Coast Eagles games and some State of Origin clashes before starting his new life in America.
Greg commented about how far the game had come in WA.
“That we’re in the Dennis Cometti media centre, that’s super cool - at the peak of his game, I don't think there was anyone better - and I tell you, these digs are a lot better than the ones we have out the back of Subiaco Oval!” Greg said.
“This stadium is just extraordinary. There's not a bad seat in the house, we've been to stadiums all over the United States, NFL stadiums, basketball stadiums and this is better than most we've ever been to.”
“I went to Club’s launch at the Fremantle Watersheds in 1994 but I'd never seen the Dockers play live, this was the first opportunity.
“It was just phenomenal to think back to 1994 and then you're actually here at this amazing venue.”
Both Greg and Katie spoke about their love for the Freo Dockers.
“We’re very on the periphery, on the outside of the Club and it just seems to have a soul and heart,” Greg said.
Katie added “they just play with heart and at the end of the game, the way that the guys treat each other, lift one another up, give a pat on the back, it just really comes through as a team that supports one another.”
