Derby Day - Fremantle Dockers V West Coast Eagles


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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth
April 9th 2005
Published: April 19th 2005
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We are the ChampionsWe are the ChampionsWe are the Champions

of this game at least
This is more what I'm used to, partisan atmosphere, hostile crowd, there's no love lost between these cross-town rivals.

As I mentioned in the last post both these teams play at the Subiaco Oval which is in the trendy East Side of Perth, it's a real nice area with loads of bars, restaurants, boutiques, whatever tickles your fancy can be found in Subi really.

The Eagles are based here, it's where they train, have offices etc, it's really there home ground in my book but it's owned by the council, the Dockers play there home games here but train down in Fremantle at their own Oval and are based in the seaside town.

From start to finish it was more like a football game that I'm used to, loads of shouting at the opposition, songs, threats of violence, all good really, the bizarre thing is that there's no segregation, mind you probably even more bizarre was that I only saw one fight, and that was between two Dockers fans, they belted each other a bit then both sat back down, no worries.

Anyway, on to the game, the Dockers were real fired up and started the game well, they were always in the lead but the Eagles were never far behind, it was all pretty equal but the the Dockers were missing more chances, the Eagles defence, amazing in the last two weeks, hadn't really started well but luckily the Freo forwards didn't take advantage.

At half time the Dockers were up by a couple of points but started the second half with a blast, I missed this of course as I was getting some beers in but they scored 3 quick goals and went into a 21 point lead early in the 3rd quarter, this just spurred on the Eagles, the Freo crowd was getting louder, sensing victory but could the Dockers hang on? They have a history of bottling it late on and lost last week by one point in the dying seconds, would history repeat itself?

The long and the short of it is YES they did, the Eagles stepped up to the plate and rolled over the fumbling Dockers, they scored about 8 goals in a row to race into a 28 point lead and although Freo made it a tense finish by scoring the last three goals in the dying minutes, West Coast hung on to win 12.08 (80) - 12.16 (88) to send the pockets of 'away' fans wild and party on into the warm Autumn night.

We went to meet Fiona and Lara at a Subi restaurant and had a lovely night basking in the glory of my new team, it's been a while since I enjoyed football like this, actually going to the game expecting to win, regardless of who your playing. This is testament to the AFL, they have a 16 team league, each with a wage cap and a draft facility where the best young players go to the worst placed teams in the ladder, it keeps it all very interesting, and after the league part of the season, 22 games, the top 8 go through a play-off's knock-out to determine who is the champions, none of your top of the league guarantees medals nonsense here.

Now I told you I picked the Eagles because they won the cup in '94 and that, just like United but there was another reason, when I was naive to this sport I looked up the website, www.afl.com.au , to get more info on the game, the teams, the rules etc, I found what I though was two Western Australian teams, West Coast Eagles, and Western Bulldogs, I didn't register that Fremantle was only 12 miles away.

The Eagles were a newer team, 1980's, compared to the Bulldogs history stretching back to the 1890's, but more importantly the Bulldogs played in blue white & red, and do I not like that, worse than that there kit is the same as DFC's Sampdoria style jersey of the late 90's, very poor.

So I chose the Eagles, they were the first team outside Victoria to win the AFL, in 1992, and won it again in 1994 and since then have flattered to deceive, very similar to United. Lucky I did really as I wouldn't have had much chance getting to a Western Bulldogs match from here, they're based in Western MELBOURNE, about 1500 miles away, I did however see them last weekend, Saturday 16th April, as they were humiliated 12.17 (143) - 17.5 (107), by the now top of the ladder Eagles, at the home of Football.

This coming Sunday the Eagles face the toughest, and longest of AFL road trips, away to the Brisbane Lions, Grand Finalist's for the last 4 years and winners on three of those occasions, 2001, 2002, 2003, I won't be making the 5000 mile return trip but will be watching on TV, let's go Eagles, let's go!!


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Pitch before kick-offPitch before kick-off
Pitch before kick-off

Dockers V Eagles
Bounce down to startBounce down to start
Bounce down to start

Freo V West Coast
Goal Eagles !!Goal Eagles !!
Goal Eagles !!

Let's go Eagles, let's go!!
The winnersThe winners
The winners

West Coast Eagles
Red sky at nightRed sky at night
Red sky at night

an Eagles delight


23rd June 2006

about use
GO WEST COAST EAGLES
1st October 2006

2006 premiers
yay the eagles are 2006 premiers yay 1 point ova sydney!!! woohoo
11th September 2007

freo
GO THA DOCKERS
2nd May 2009

freo
wow you look back in those days and you wondered how did eagles beat such a great team who have won the last 6 out of 7 derbies! gooo freo!

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