Senior Coach Ross Lyon made a passionate call to arms to Fremantle members and supporters while speaking at Fremantle’s AFL Season Launch at Perth Convention Exhibition Centre on Tuesday.
Fremantle’s no.1 ticket holder Richard Walley set the tone with a storytelling theme in his Welcome to Country, and Walley’s message resonated with Lyon.
“As ‘Uncle’ Richard Walley spoke about sharing stories, the only way you can share our story down the track is if you get on board with our journey,” Lyon said.
“As we saw with the Bulldogs and Richmond, the real enjoyment comes out when you do the hard yards and see the growth in the young players.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of our partners and members to get involved. I know as a playing group and coaching group, we’re really excited. We just want to play some great football during the next few years and get back to the finals.”
Lyon drew comparisons between the current playing list and some club greats, saying he expects a number of Freo’s newest players to become household names in the future.
“We’ve seen that in Stephen Hill and Fyfe and also in (former players) Matthew Pavlich and Luke McPharlin,” Lyon said.
“You'll see this in (Adam) Cerra, in (Andrew) Brayshaw and (Mitch) Crowden, too. So that’s where the enjoyment comes from.
“Your unconditional support, we can’t do without it. We rely on the fans so stick with us, we’re working incredibly hard.
“Get behind us, there’ll be some great times and tough times but we’ll be able to share those experiences amongst the Docker community if you jump on board now, so thank you for sticking with us.”
Captain Nat Fyfe added to Lyon’s comments, highlighting the importance of a string of games at Optus Stadium near the beginning of the season, starting in round two against Essendon and a round three ‘away’ game against Gold Coast.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to platform our season, four of our first six games are played at Optus Stadium,” Fyfe said.
“We want to gather as many people as we can wearing purple and supporting Freo on, if we can get a good start to the season it will really set us up.
“I really want to echo Ross’s comments earlier, the support from all of the people in the room today and our members, sponsors and supporters.
"Keep joining us on the journey, I think there’s big things ahead in 2018 and beyond for Fremantle.”
