A lot of stuff happened in Perth over the weekend. There was some sort of charity walk that shut down the roads, the Fremantle heritage festival opened to a crowd of people wearing cardigans, the state government gave the hospital laundry contract to Reflex, presumably someone got glassed in Northbridge and Gina Rinehart made a truckload of money. There was no WAFL on because WA were playing SA in the state game. It was quite cold in the mornings. that was about it though. There seemed to be a bit of a crowd in Subiaco for some reason, someone was probably having a sale on giant sunglasses and handbags.
There had been a lot of talk around Fremantle about Ross Lyon's game plan in the lead up to the Derby. Was it too boring? Was it too ugly? Was it just generally crap? The town was divided...as usual. But it was all irrelevant. It was derby week. It didn't matter how Ross Lyon coached. He could win pretty, win ugly, win with tea cosy on his head and a fish down his pants. He just had to bloody win. There are no articles of war in a derby. You do what you have to do to get the 4 points and then worry about the fall out later. History will judge you kindly.
Of course, if you lose you won't be so lucky. Mark Harvey lost both derbies last year. Ask him what happens to you when you do that...if you can find him. He was last seen somewhere in Brisbane, carrying the drinks.
So when the thirty fifth derby got going in Subiaco, there were a lot of very happy people back in Fremantle. It looked like Ross had had some sort of pre-derby epiphany, a Derpiphany. ...Read More