Wharfie Time returns for Fremantle Dockers at AFLW level in loss to Sydney

Fremantle have unleashed Wharfie Time for the first time since losing the AFL grand final, with the gong ringing at the club’s AFLW game against Sydney on Sunday.

The Dockers were two points down at three quarter time of their final game of the season after Sydney star Chloe Molloy kicked her 27th goal of the season to set a new AFLW record for a single year.

Molloy then kicked her fourth goal of the game at the start of the final term, to give the Swans an eight point lead.

But Noa McNaughton responded for Fremantle to make it a one-point contest with 10 minutes remaining.

The Swans quickly answered through Holly Cooper before Hayley Miller kicked a goal to again make it a one-point game with 86 seconds left.

That scenario had Wharfie Time written all over it. And the gong played, much to the delight of the crowd.

Unfortunately for Freo, they couldn’t find a way to score across the final stretch, suffering a one-point defeat to end their season.

The move came after Dockers CEO told The Sunday Times they’d not only be retaining Wharfie Time for next season, they’d have no hesitation playing it in round one against the Western Bulldogs.

“There’ll be no hesitation. No hesitation,” Garlick told The Sunday Times while in Broome at Fremantle’s Kimberley 9s carnival.

“We understand the narrative or discussion around the timing and potential impact of Wharfie Time, but we just don’t subscribe to it influencing the result. I think that’s been driven largely a lot of people who don’t really understand the concept of Wharfie Time.

“Wharfie Time is an in-game activation that is owned by our members and fans. Our members and fans understand that Wharfie Time encapsulates a fair bit of who we are as a club. It’s where we come from. A port, a working-class town, with footy heritage and history of over a century from the town from which we come.

“Nothing’s been given to our club on a silver platter from our inception in 1994 to our first game in 1995. It’s that context that I think fed into a lot of what made it work.”

The man who coined the phrase ‘Wharfie Time’, Dockers legend Matthew Pavlich, was at Sunday’s game as he helped oversee the Swans’ victory in his role as chief executive.