Fremantle's first coach watches grand final from African safari
Fremantle's founder-coach Gerard Neesham will watch Saturday's grand final from Botswana, hoping to find a stable internet signal.
Fremantle's first coach Gerard Neesham will be somewhere in Botswana when the grand final siren sounds on Saturday at the MCG. He's in either the Kalahari Desert or a lodge in Maun, depending on where his friend Danny Southern can confirm there's a working internet connection.
Neesham planned this holiday with his wife Heather a year in advance. "If I can't watch it somewhere else, I'll stay where I am," he told a reporter during a rare moment online from Maun.
"I'm going to watch it and hope like hell we win." That Neesham is on African safari while the club chases its first premiership fits perfectly with the Dockers' quirky history.
No other AFL club has purple as their colour. They broke the mould by rejecting an animal mascot entirely.
- Kalahari Desert or Maun, Botswana
- Coach location
- Planned one year in advance
- Holiday duration
- Purple colour, no animal mascot
- Club founding identity
Why it mattersNeesham watching from Africa while Fremantle chases its first flag fits the club's unique, unconventional identity.
AustraliaA Dockers win on Saturday would deliver Western Australia its first AFL premiership since 2015 and break a 13-year drought that has defined the club's most recent era.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 1 h ago
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