This is an open letter to the fans of the Fremantle Dockers Football Club:
We changed our guernsey, we will soon change our training ground, our song has been changed, we changed our coach, our board changed our financial ledger, we changed our coach, we changed our outlook, we changed our game plan and we changed our culture.
And yes, we changed.
Or should I say our club changed, we as supporters, or some of us at least, haven’t.
There are many different factions these days.
Some are passionate stalwarts, those who say keep Freo in Freo.
They are the old guernsey lovers, the people who rue the day that ‘the Steves’ took up key positions on the board. They are the fans who are upset that the club has moved away from its roots as a people’s club.
I’m not here to factionalise any one group more than they already are.
I am here just to say that as a collective we are all striving and hoping towards the same goal. Some people are members and therefore have a right to voice their opinion, others are fans since 1995 and some are just people who care or want to see Freo perform.
But it has to be said, since we have changed colours, I have never seen such a sea of purple in the stands on game day.
Our move to Cockburn will only better our team’s chance of success, our song is now in line with the way our players sing it, we finally have an experienced coaching staff and our club is now a financial powerhouse.
We are the envy of at least 14 other clubs and lastly our club appears more a team tilting at success like never before.
Is it now that our expectations have been lifted so much that we expect so much of our players that we will not accept the mediocrity of the past?
That we will no longer put up with losses that should have been wins? Or is it just some new fans that we have picked up that feel their voice has some weight to it?
I will use Adam McPhee as an example. When he joined the club he had a lot of negative comments directed against him.
Yet he took it on the chin and excelled. He received AA selection at Essendon.
When thinking of players that get such treatment, two others come to mind, Alex Silvagni and Zac Dawson.
SCOS’ form in 2010 and 2011 was amazing. It lived up to his famous name.
Many called for him to be included in the 2012 team but when he was selected in the finals series, the backlash against him was appalling.
I am not saying that the same people that wanted him in the team were the same lamenting his selection but it does make you think.
Which brings me to Zac Dawson, the only player on our list who has played in an AFL grand final. A player who celebrates 100 AFL games this weekend.
He is celebrated among his team mates. I have seen him embraced by Luke MacPharlin, a player who gives his all and is never criticised by ‘the faithful’ and someone who contributed to the second best overall defensive output last season.
It must be asked that if a player such as Luke is so embracing of Zac, why aren’t the fans? Surely Luke knows if a player is pulling his weight?
I guess what I have been trying to say is that as a club, in the last few years, we have gone through a lot of changes but we are still the Fremantle Football Club (now able to officially call ourselves the Dockers again through some great negotiating by our new board) but we still want the same thing, we still want the same outcome. Success.
We have to have faith in the board, coach, selection committee and ourselves that we are fans of a club that knows what it is doing.
It is our job to support our club not factionalise it more with uneducated criticism.
I am not saying don’t be critical or put up with team performances not befitting the standard that has now been set just that we need to keep the faith in the people put in charge of our club.
We are a team after all, if we berate one, we berate them all.
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