It seems a lot of fellow Dockers fans are feeling pretty down this week, and you can’t blame them. I felt like as a group of supporters we deserved better. But as the day rolled on, i remembered this great passage i had read, describing what it means to be a fan of a team.

"It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift."

I, for one, am grateful for the moments of excitement, joy, laughter, nervousness, anger, and oftentimes disappointment that being a supporter of the Dockers provides. Sure, i’d rather they won more, but following a team isn’t (just) about winning. It’s about being part of something bigger than yourself. One day we will win a flag; Perhaps it won’t be soon, perhaps it won’t be as often as other clubs, but it will happen, and when it does, it will be a just reward for all times we sat through games like Sunday’s.

And to the supporters who feel embarrassed by the team’s display, hold your head high. You are not defined by the way the team plays, be it good or bad. What is important is the way you deal with the moments of triumph or disaster played out before you. Perhaps it is naive to think that Dockers supporters are different to those of other clubs, but I think there is a small truth to it. Don Watson once said that history was ‘the tragic repetition of events made sufferable by irony’, and i often wonder if he was talking about the history of the Dockers. But it is that awareness of the irony, the absurdities, and the big picture that sets this purple mob apart. It is the clapping off of a team that lost a final by 10 goals, because we knew where we had come from. It is sticking by guys like Macca, because we can see what playing means to him. It is about wishing guys like Medders good luck on his journeys after he has left our club (even if we hope his new club gets smashed). Do we accept mediocrity, or do we just 'get it'? Perhaps it makes no difference -we are what we are.

It was a shocker of a game, but there are (at least) 15 more this year, and if we don’t turn it around this season, well, there’s a season every year for the rest of our lives. One of them will be ours, and i know i’ll be around to dance and shout with joy over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball.

Me too.

Thanks Morgan - agree with all you say - although am a bit edgy about the Macca comment.

I wholeheartedly agree!

But I would like to win a Premiership in my lifetime though!

I've been a member on this rollercoaster for 11 years and after that game I carried on like a pork chop and swore off footy to my family and they said " no you haven't" I said I hated Freo and they said"no you don't" I swore never to watch another game and they said "yes you will" and on and on and they were right .Because when the dust settles if you really really support Freo you can't not be there. I have no choice, Il ove this club and I hate this club but they are in my bones and ya can't live without bones so I will be there, it sems, no matter what.

I over that one and now looking for improvement as we go forward. Surely that is the bottom.

A lovely piece there, Morgan - and very true. Even in the midst of my despondency on Sunday, I knew that I could never support anybody else.

Although "the hardest steel is forged in the hottest furnace" is a very hackneyed line, I think it genuinely applies to the purple bloods of the world. We have endured years of disappointment and setbacks, but come the day when Fremantle are respected and feared in the football world, we will know that happiness is nothing without the sadness behind it.

Fremantle is not just about winning. It's the entire experience, the mosaic of life at its best and worst. As long as the Dockers offer us this, we'll be there.

I always console myself with the old saying "no pain, no gain".
I figure when we finally win something of significance, we will have gone thru so much pain, that the gain will be OH SO Sweet! Please let that day be in the not too distant future.

I wasn't able to be consoled on Sunday. Nevertheless, it's ten times true, I too was choosen by this club. There's no way to escape. And as said in another post, we will stay untill the END of the game. No matter if we loose or win, even if I hate to hear other's clubs song when the game is over.
So, here's what I did to turn things up : Back from work yesterday I put on my purple media polo shirt and went, apprehensive, food shopping. It went well, copped no verbal abuse at all. Then I watched Harves on Fox (gee he had a tough time...). At 10pm I was still wearing purple. That's my colour, that's my team. That's also the quality of the supporter, guys just like you in this post. Thanks Morgan.

My wife and I travelled to Melbourne for a long weekend of shopping and the opportunity to see Freo strut their stuff at the MCG, we had a great weekend together doing the touristy bits you do but the game was a roller coaster of emotion I loved em I hated em oh my god the pain.
On the way out of the MCG I was mumbling and rocking backwards and forwards like a demented polar bear when my wife brought me back to earth by recieting one of her favourite poems,

IF by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!

I must admit to getting a lump in my throat by the end but it put things in perspective apt not only for us supporters but maybe for our hero's in Purple.
We came home last night after having a fantastic weekend.
Mind you if you think the game was painfull you should see my credit card balance now!!!!!

Well done Morgan and thanks for the timely reminder. Yes we are all ****** off over Sunday but we all know what you and the others say is true.
What choice do we have? WE ARE FREO AND THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE!

My ten yr old son lost it half way through the third qtr as he knew what was coming. He'd seen it before. He went to his room and grabbed every dockers item of his - posters, hats, jumpers, doona cover, pillow, flag, clock, shirt, autographed clothing - put them in bags and chucked it all over the fence into the bulk rubbish collection!!

About an hour and a half after the game i saw him out there collecting it all up and carrying it back inside, cleaning it off and putting it back exactly how it was.

I asked him what he was doing and he said - (this is no joke)

"It's inside me dad, i can't do anything about it - I'm a docker!!"

That's hilarious Rowdy.