Wyndham turned purple for one of its adopted sons on AFL grand final day.
Werribee Tigers fans with no allegiances to Hawthorn were on the Fremantle bandwagon with former star Michael Barlow turning out for the West Australian club.
Barlow, 25, comes from a sports-mad family in Shepparton, but it wasn’t until he moved to Werribee in the Victorian Football League that his football career went through the roof.
He arrived at Watton Street as a raw 20-year-old in 2008 with big raps on him after winning a Morrison Medal as best-and-fairest in the Goulburn Valley Football League.
Within two years, he was a fan favourite and household name in the VFL.
By the end of 2009, he was the club best and fairest, Fothergill Round medallist for the best young player in the VFL and runner-up in the prestigious JJ Liston Trophy.
Barlow’s journey to the big league was one of persistence after he was rookie-listed by Fremantle in preseason 2010.
He refused to give up on his AFL dream after a sickening broken leg. He suffered a clean break through the tibia and fibula in a collision with teammate Rhys Palmer, which threatened to ruin his career.
But Barlow didn’t let it defeat him.
His comeback would be one of the many stories retold by television news services, radio shows and daily newspapers in the lead-up to the grand final.
Unfortunately for Barlow and the Dockers, there was no storybook ending on Saturday.
When Barlow spoke to the Weekly in the rooms post-game, the pain of a 15-point grand final loss to Hawthorn was etched in his face. “It’s absolutely gut-wrenching, it’s just devastation across the group,” he said. “A real strength of this group is that we bleed for each other; we hurt as much as each other and we want to achieve for each other.
“At the moment, you hurt for them and you hurt for the whole group, not just the 22 but the blokes who have been injured and couldn’t play, and the coaching staff.”
Barlow was left with no doubt that premierships at the top level are won and lost under the finest of margins. The Dockers were overwhelmed by the occasion early, while the finals-hardened Hawks settled in no time.
Ross Lyon’s Dockers are renowned for their attention to detail, but they made uncharacteristic errors on the biggest stage.
Barlow says the missed chances in front of goal will be nitpicked externally, but there were other areas ever-so-slightly in favour of the Hawks that left the Dockers licking their wounds instead of transporting a premiership cup across the Nullarbor.
“We had the opportunity today and didn’t grab the opportunity,” he said.
“Never a moment throughout the game, right until the final siren, did we not imagine we could win it. I think just some basic errors [were costly] and a lot will be made about the misses in front of goal.
“More so, there were moments of win-loss across the whole 120 minutes, and Hawthorn probably had a 52-53 per cent win across the day – and that’s tackling, contested ball and basic skills.”
Barlow had a strong second half to finish with 23 disposals, eight tackles and three marks.
