Fremantle Dockers to honour Perth star Bon Scott for 50th anniversary AC/DC debut and 30th club birthday

Fremantle hope to hammer home some old-school rock during Sunday’s season-opener at Optus Stadium — combining the club’s 30th birthday with the 50th anniversary of Bon Scott’s AC/DC debut. Scott joined the band in 1974 after shifting from Fremantle to Sydney, inspiring the Dockers to turn on AC/DC anthems after goals scored this season. Since 2019 the Dockers have opened home games with Rocker on the Roof Troy Nababan’s guitar solo of Queen’s We Will Rock You. Sunday’s eastern-end rooftop entertainment will come with a “Bon-ified” twist — should the Dockers salute — with Nababan performing TNT after the final siren, delivered with a powerful purple Freo flavour. “That will be really cool and we hope that happens on Sunday afternoon,” Fremantle chief executive Simon Garlick said. Garlick said hosting a home game every two weeks at “the best venue in the country” was akin to staging a rock concert. “We are a footy club first and foremost and we don’t step away from that as our core focus, but the reality is we are also an entertainment company, an event management company,” Garlick told The Sunday Times. “We essentially put on 11 concerts every two weeks during winter — we averaged 45,000 people last year — so it is a massive part of what we do. We can separate making sure our footy performances are there, but we put on a great show outside of footy as well.” The Dockers will also introduce a new Kidzone and Gen Fun Bar areas this season as part of their 30th birthday party. Scott was born in Scotland and moved to Fremantle at age 10 in 1956. His first foray into music was as a drummer with the Fremantle Scots Pipe Band. He attended North Fremantle Primary School and John Curtin College of the Arts until he dropped out at 15. Scott died at age 33 in 1980, but not before helping to launch the band into the stratosphere. Garlick has “at least eight” AC/DC songs “running around” on his personal play list. The top three? “I love Jailbreak. It’s probably my favourite AC/DC song,” he said. “For Those About To Rock is really special, and it’s hard to beat A Long Way To The Top.”