Nicknames and Indigenous name The club is nicknamed the "Dockers" in reference to Fremantle's maritime and dockworker heritage. As a result, the club and the AFL discontinued the official use of the "Dockers" nickname in 1997. However, it remained in common usage both inside and outside the club, and continued to appear in the official team song "Freo Way to Go" and as the title of the official club magazine
Docker. In 2010, the club secured rights from Levi Strauss & Co to officially use the nickname "Dockers" across all branding and merchandise. This name change was made in conjunction with changes to the club logo and playing strip. When board members raised concerns in 1993 about perceived links to the
Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, which was then embroiled in criminal investigations, inaugural chairman Ross Kelly and CEO David Hatt came up with a fictional origin to reassure them: that the name came from the
Fremantle Doctor, a sea breeze supposedly once called the "Fremantle Docker". This "white lie" helped the name gain acceptance and has since become part of club folklore. During the 2022 finals, the tongue-in-cheek nickname "Flagmantle" came to symbolise fans' hope or belief that the club is destined for a premiership. Since 2023, during the
Sir Doug Nicholls and AFLW Indigenous Rounds, Fremantle plays as Walyalup ("place of the
woylie"), the traditional
Noongar name for the Fremantle area.
Motto The official club motto is "Forever Freo". During Indigenous Rounds, the club also uses the Noongar translation, "Kalyakoorl Walyalup". Another popular phrase is "Wharfie Time", which originated during a 2009 match when a TV broadcast picked up captain
Matthew Pavlich rallying his teammates with the line: "Put on your Superman capes, boys. It's wharfie time." Initially met with bemused reactions from commentators, the phrase was embraced by fans and has become an informal club motto. During close games at Perth Stadium, "Wharfie Time" is shown on the big screens, accompanied by the bell from
AC/DC's "
Hells Bells".
Guernsey Until 2011 the Dockers used the anchor symbol as the basis for all of their
guernseys. The home guernsey was purple, with a white anchor on the front separating the chest area into red and green panels, representing the maritime
port and starboard colours. The colours also acknowledged Fremantle's large
Italian community, which historically has been associated with the city's fishing industry. The away or clash guernsey was all white with a purple anchor. In 2008, CEO Steve Rosich confirmed that Fremantle's guernsey would be reviewed as part of wider branding changes, though the club would retain purple as its primary colour. Since 2011, the home guernsey is purple with three white chevrons, and the away jumper is white with purple chevrons. The design was inspired by the club's
Heritage Round guernsey, which in turn emulates the jumper worn by the original Fremantle Football Club in 1885. One game each year is designated as the
Purple Haze game, where an all-purple jumper with a white anchor is worn. This game is used to raise money for the
Starlight Children's Foundation. After the guernsey re-design to a predominately purple home jumper, Fremantle wore the Starlight Foundation logo, a yellow star, above the highest chevron for their Purple Haze game.
Home ground and headquarters , Fremantle's home ground Fremantle Football Club had its original training and administration facilities at
Fremantle Oval from 1995 until 2017. On 21 February 2017 the club moved its training and administration facilities to
Cockburn ARC, a professional sports training facility and community recreation centre that was constructed in 2015–17 at a price of $109 million, located in the suburb of
Cockburn Central. The team's home games are played at
Perth Stadium (commercially known as Optus Stadium), a 61,000 seat multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of
Burswood. The club began playing home matches at the venue in 2018, having previously played home matches at
Subiaco Oval from 2001 onward and before that the
WACA Ground from 1995 to 2000.
Songs The official song of Fremantle is "Freo Way to Go", a truncated version of the club's original song, "Freo Heave Ho", written by
Ken Walther. "Freo Way to Go" was adopted in 2011 following a poll on the Dockers' official website, beating out the original and two newly composed songs: "The Mighty Roar of Freo" by Rosco Elliott, and "Freo Freo", written by Fremantle
indie rock group and the Dockers' then-
number-one ticket holder,
Eskimo Joe. The poll coincided with updates to the club's
guernsey and logo. Unlike other
AFL team songs, "Freo Way to Go" is played to a contemporary rock tune. "Freo Heave Ho" also had a section based on
Igor Stravinsky's arrangement of the traditional Russian folk song, "
Song of the Volga Boatmen", which was dropped in 2011, leaving only the original composition of Walther. Due to its unconventional style, the song is derided by many opposition supporters and defended with equally fierce loyalty by many fans. Author and Fremantle fan
Tim Winton boasted: "Every other team song sounds like a '
Knees Up Mother Brown' from previous eras. We've got a backbeat". Fremantle
psychedelic groups
Pond and
Tame Impala, linked by shared members, have both released tributes to the club. Pond covered "Freo Heave Ho" in 2013, while Tame Impala's
Kevin Parker, after being named the club's number-one ticket holder in 2021, released "Go Freo", a hype track now played at three-quarter time at Fremantle's home games. Adding to the Fremantle connection, the song draws inspiration from
Bon Scott-era
AC/DC.
Mascots • 1995–1999:
Grinder – a cartoon-like
docker man, in a similar style to
Popeye, with a permanent snarl, oversized jaw and muscular arms. • 2000–2003:
The Doc – a straggly blonde-haired mascot, similar in appearance to Fremantle players
Clive Waterhouse or
Shaun McManus. • 2003–present:
Johnny "The Doc" Docker – a blonde haired surfer with a surfboard under one arm is the Dockers' official mascot in the
Mascot Manor promotion for kids. • 2012–present:
Jenny Docker – Johnny's younger sister. • 2022–present:
Dokka the Quokka – a
quokka, which is a marsupial native to
Rottnest Island, off the coast of Fremantle.
Ownership and management The club is owned by the
West Australian Football Commission (WAFC). Since 2003, a board of directors controls the operation of the club, on behalf of the WAFC. Prior to this, a two-tier arrangement was in place, with a Board of Management between the board of directors and the commission. The initial club CEO was
David Hatt, who had come from a hockey background, and the inaugural club
chairman was
Ross Kelly, who had played for
West Perth. It was a deliberate act by the commission to avoid having administrators from either
East Fremantle or
South Fremantle in key roles, as they wanted the club to be bigger than just representing Fremantle. Kelly resigned at the end of 1998, replaced by
Ross McLean. Whilst he presided over some key financial decisions, including the building of the club's administrative and training centre at
Fremantle Oval and the deferment of the licence fee to the AFL, it was Fremantle's lowest point onfield, culminating in a two-win season in 2001 which saw the coach
Damian Drum be sacked mid-year. McLean resigned following an inadvertent breach of the
salary cap. In early 2001 Hatt accepted a government job and
Cameron Schwab was appointed. After weathering the fallout from the disastrous 2001 season, Schwab and the new chairman, local West Australian retailing businessman
Rick Hart, set about rebuilding the club. A former recruiting manager, Schwab focused on building up the on-field performance by recruiting high-profile players in
Trent Croad,
Peter Bell and
Jeff Farmer, as well as coach
Chris Connolly and with Hart then focused on enhancing the corporate and financial standing of the club. The club membership grew every year from 2002 until 2008 and the final licence payment was made to the AFL in 2005. Schwab chose to return to Melbourne in 2008 and was replaced as CEO by
Steve Rosich, who had previously worked for the
West Coast Eagles. A year later Hart resigned as president and
Steve Harris, who runs
The Brand Agency and had produced advertising for Fremantle since 2002, took over at the end of 2009. Harris had been on the board since November 2008, the first club chairman or president to have previously served on the board. The club has developed into one of the wealthiest clubs in the league and their surprise recruitment of
Ross Lyon to replace
Mark Harvey as coach at the end of the 2011 is seen as an example of their ruthless drive for sustained success. In 2014, Harris resigned as president and was replaced by the then vice president, Perth property developer
Dale Alcock.
Sponsorship AFL AFL Women's Rivalries West Coast Eagles Fremantle's biggest rivalry is with the other Western Australian team, the
West Coast Eagles, who they play twice each year in the
home and away season, in the fiercely contested "
Western Derby" matches (pronounced in Western Australia). West Coast won the first nine encounters, but Fremantle broke the streak with a win in Round 16, 1999. When they met again a year later, Fremantle came back from 42 points down in the third quarter to win by a single point. Dubbed the "
Demolition Derby", the match is infamous for its on-field brawls and resulting suspensions and fines, and is now remembered as a turning point in Fremantle's identity and competitiveness. Since then, the rivalry has been relatively even, with Fremantle holding 28 Derby wins overall to West Coast's 33.
St Kilda The Dockers and the
St Kilda Football Club have had several controversial encounters, most notably in 2006, when a match at
Launceston's
York Park ended in a dispute dubbed "
Sirengate". While the match initially ended in a draw, the AFL overturned the draw result the following Wednesday after the match; the controversy was due to an off-field error made by the timekeepers not sounding the siren for long enough to confirm that the umpires heard it, as well as the siren not being loud enough for the field umpires to hear over the roar of the crowd in the first place, and Fremantle were eventually declared as one-point winners with no protest from St Kilda. It marked the first time a game result had later been overturned since 1900. During the 2011 off-season, Fremantle sacked coach
Mark Harvey and replaced him with then-St Kilda coach
Ross Lyon in controversial circumstances. The move was met with much criticism towards Fremantle's president, Steve Harris, and CEO, Steve Rosich, claiming that they had "backstabbed" Harvey. Lyon was also met with widespread criticism and was accused of backstabbing St Kilda by many Saints supporters as the club was made aware that Fremantle had approached Lyon during St Kilda's lead-up to its finals campaign. The two clubs contested a highly anticipated Friday night match in Round 4 of the
2012 AFL season at
Etihad Stadium, with Fremantle winning by 13 points and Lyon being booed throughout the match. Lyon became Fremantle's longest serving and most successful coach before being sacked in 2019. He later returned for a second coaching stint at St Kilda in 2023, and his first game back was against Fremantle. ==Players==