The Fremantle Dockers’ premiership campaign has once again shown why football can carry an importance far beyond the result, Adrian Barich has argued, with supporters facing either the exhilaration of victory or the despair of defeat against Brisbane.
For Dockers fans, the aftermath of the AFL grand final may mean a hangover from celebration or commiseration. Either way, the match will have stirred passions, created lasting memories and, for a few hours, made almost everything else seem less significant.
Barich argues that sport is deeply woven into Australian life. It creates friendships, rivalries, family traditions and shared experiences between generations, while giving supporters heroes, villains and moments they remember for years.
Those who saw Fremantle lose have been urged to remember that the disappointment is not permanent. The team is young and talented, Barich says, and should have further opportunities to challenge for the premiership in the coming years.
He compares the current Dockers side with the West Coast Eagles team of 1991, which lost a grand final before going on to win premierships in 1992 and 1994. West Coast, he adds, probably should have won again in 1993.
For Fremantle supporters, the pain of defeat will eventually become part of the club’s history rather than defining their lives. The result matters, Barich says, but it is not everything.
If the Dockers have secured their first premiership, however, the consequences for the club and its supporters are profound. Twenty-three players would immediately become part of Fremantle folklore, while thousands of fans would have witnessed the moment they had waited 31 years to see.
Barich recalls being inside the West Coast Eagles’ inner sanctum when the club won its first premiership in 1992. Although he did not play in the grand final, he saw the tears, embraces, relief and joy that followed the victory.
The significance of that triumph extended beyond the cup itself. Carrying the premiership trophy to the airport and taking it out of Victoria was a source of particular pride, symbolising Western Australia’s success against the state that had looked down on it.
That, Barich suggests, is why sport matters. It is not life or death, but it adds something to life by giving people a reason to care and, at times, something to celebrate together. He points to South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup victory as another example of sport uniting a nation.
The result of a grand final can feel overwhelming when the siren sounds, whether it brings joy or devastation. Yet the knowledge that it is only a game does not lessen the intensity of those moments — and feeling that deeply, Barich argues, may be part of what makes people human.
