Purple Army hails its heroes
Thousands of people have descended on Fremantle Oval for the Dockers only open training session ahead of Saturday's grand final showdown with Hawthorn.
It is the last chance for many local supporters to see the team live for the year after many missed out on tickets to the hotly-anticipated decider.
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The first diehard fans were at the ground as early as 6am today, more than three hours before their heroes were due to appear for the session under the watchful eye of Ross "The Boss" Lyon.
As the time for training to start arrived, hundreds of people were still streaming through the gates, adding to the mass of purple that started to ring the ground.
At least 5000 people are thought to be at the ground, perhaps less than the 10,000 Lyon spoke about yesterday but bad weather may have kept some away.
Heavy rain as the players were due on to the ground but by the time they ran out, about 20 minutes later, the weather had eased and there was a hint of sunshine.
The Fremantle players, led by captain Matthew Pavlich, walked out to a rock star welcome about 20 minutes after the designated start of training and as the team song blared around the ground.
The 'Freo' chant rang out as the players jogged and stretched as part of their warm up. Coach Ross Lyon strolled out minutes later.
The crowd grew to about 6000 before the light training session ended.The Dockers players did not get out of first gear as they trained for just under an hour in light rain.
All-Australian defenders Luke McPharlin and Michael Johnson were notable absentees, as was hard-working forward Chris Mayne. Johnson and McPharlin spent long periods off the ground in Saturday night's preliminary final win over Sydney at Patersons Stadium after returning to the side following calf injuries.Giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands and key defender Zac Dawson made late appearances and did some ball work away from the main group. Lee Spurr and Tendai Mzungu jogged laps and were on light duties. The Purple Army was entertained, at least for two songs, by Eskimo Joe and the Scotch College pipe band.The hottest place in Fremantle was a makeshift Dockers shop, which was selling merchandise from a van at the oval as fast as the tills could ring up the purchases.
Pictures: Bill Hatto/The West Australian
