Source : ABC NEWS
Fremantle’s devastated players had not even left the field of play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the recovery from what is one of the most heartbreaking grand final losses ever had already begun.
The bowels of the MCG acted as a safety bunker for Freo’s players, a sanctuary away from prying eyes in the aftermath of a crushing loss.
Fremantle’s team bus was parked and ready to depart as family members, club employees and reporters filed in and out of the rooms.
Amid the cloud of devastation, the rays of hope already began to shine through.
Before the players retreated to the rooms, their crestfallen loved ones looked to console them, even though it seemed an impossible task, before trying to impart whatever positive vibes they’d managed to summon.
Eventually the players started filtering through. Some in tears, some clutching their jerseys in disbelief, others simply looking into any space possible that meant they could avoid eye contact.
One middle-aged man, presumably a father of one of the players, embraced each of them, telling them to keep their heads up.
It is this positivity that will help Fremantle get back up off the canvas after an unspeakably traumatic defeat.
The loved ones of Fremantle’s shattered players did their very best to summon positive energy in the changerooms in the immediate aftermath of the grand final. (Getty Images: Daniel Carson)
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir, a man who has overseen this team’s rise to be a bona fide contender over the past seven seasons, admitted there was no way to soften the blow for his “devastated” charges.
Brisbane’s incredible heist left Longmuir in tears before the final siren, and when he gathered his players on the ground in the immediate aftermath, the message was clear: “Have each other’s back.”
“We play an imperfect game that is full of mistakes, and every game that they have played across their journey they would have made mistakes, it just feels a bit bigger right now,” he said.
“If we had’ve won, we would’ve won together. We lost, we lose together, so have each other’s back.“
Brisbane’s three-peat may have made winning premierships look easy, but it is anything but.
It is easy to forget that before their crowning moments of the last three years, the Lions too experienced significant heartbreak.
For some reason in sport, you often need to experience ultimate grief before you get the opportunity to experience ultimate joy.
The sporting Gods are cruel like that.
As difficult and gut-wrenching as it may be right now, Longmuir wants his players to sit in the grief.
Justin Longmuir got Fremantle’s shattered players into a huddle on the field immediately after the final siren. (Getty Images: Daniel Carson)
“We’re devastated, but we need to make sure that we’ve got each other’s back and support each other and make sure we’re not too hard on ourselves through this moment,” he said.
“The time to move on is not now, and we’ve got to sit in this and help each other through it and then the time to move on and worrying about next year is down the track.”
And what is to come of the now-infamous and probably haunted Wharfie Time? Do we ever see it again?
Longmuir continued the theme of positivity by saying he would like to see Wharfie Time return, downplaying the impact it had on Fremantle’s collapse, but when your opponent openly speaks about using it as motivation, it is time to bury the gimmick.
Fremantle players admitted after the match that they thought they were home when the Wharfie Time bells tolled in the final quarter. (Getty Images: Michael Willson)
The bells tolling after Patrick Voss’s goal with just over four minutes left certainly allowed Fremantle’s fans to dare to dream, and in the aftermath, the players revealed they did as well.
Norm Smith Medal winner Shai Bolton and teammate Judd McVee both admitted they thought they were home, before the Lions avalanche, which the Norm Smith Medal winner described as a “blur”.
“Finals football is all about moments and in the last four minutes we didn’t take our moments and Brisbane probably did,” Bolton said.
“They’ve got the experience and in the last four minutes they played their way and came home with the chocolates.”
Fremantle players were left devastated after the final siren as they watched Brisbane receive the premiership cup. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Fremantle is a family club and will need to summon all that positivity to get over this.
“We’ll stick together after this, we’re like brothers,” McVee told ABC Sport.
“Everyone plays a part in it. It is a very tight group here, and we just love each other.”
Fremantle, like Brisbane three years ago, will be back. They are too young and too talented not to.
The Dockers ranked 13th in the league in experience in terms of games played and have the 11th-youngest list in the AFL.
Leigh Matthews’s famous minutes and goals equation came up trumps for Brisbane in its time of need. (Getty Images: Morgan Hancock)
Like Brisbane under Chris Fagan, the Dockers also have the power of continuity behind them, something many of their rivals are chasing in a league that is increasingly obsessed with instant results over the ups and downs of a long journey.
One of the best-known adages in the AFL world is legendary former Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews’s minutes and goals equation. Watch any close game and you are likely to hear commentators refer to it.
During his time as a coach, Matthews had always believed that you could still win a game if you had more minutes left than goals behind.
Brisbane needed three goals with four minutes remaining and wound up kicking four. Their legendary coach’s equation came through again.
Never again will Fremantle’s supporters or its players feel like a victory is truly in the bag.
Not when Matthews’s equation is on their side, not when they get on a run midway through the third quarter, and certainly not when the Wharfie Time bell tolls, if it ever tolls again.
