Wharfie Time

For the Fremantle Dockers supporters, this one will hurt for a very long time. With less than four minutes left in today’s Grand Final, Patrick Voss put the Dockers up by 17 points. “Wharfie Time”, the late-game celebration at their home games, rang out across the MCG, and for a few glorious moments, Fremantle supporters must have believed their long wait for a first AFL Premiership was finally over. Then, almost impossibly, everything changed.

The Brisbane Lions refused to accept the game was over. Within a minute, Charlie Cameron and Zac Bailey kicked goals, abruptly turning celebration into nervousness. Then Logan Morris took a huge contested mark and kicked the goal that put the Lions in front. He added another in the dying seconds, completing an astonishing run of four unanswered goals and securing a 96-89 victory. For Brisbane, it was an extraordinary third consecutive premiership, confirming their place among the great teams of the modern era.

What made today’s use of Wharfie Time so memorable, and ultimately painful for Dockers supporters, was the timing. Fremantle appeared to have control late on, but Brisbane then scored four late goals, turning a 17-point deficit into a seven-point premiership win. It’s hard not to sympathise with Fremantle, who had almost secured their first premiership cup and whose supporters had begun celebrating. Within minutes, that long-awaited dream vanished. This highlighted the bittersweet nature of Australian Rules football: the siren, not Wharfie Time, is what truly counts.