The coach’s bake that proved finals are not just another game

September 10, 2026 — 11:00am

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Twenty-five years ago this week, in the lead-up the 2001 qualifying final between my Tigers and the all-conquering Essendon team, the message was consistent and simple.

“It’s just another game.”

We hadn’t played in finals for six years and our coach Danny Frawley had only played two elimination finals, so he handed over to his trusted assistant Darren Crocker, who had played many finals and multiple grand finals, to sell the message.

We met in the old social club to change things up from the usual Graeme Richmond Room in the football department.

We went with the “embrace the week” model, and Crock told us that, while the game would be a bit quicker and there would be a big crowd, there were still four posts at each end of the ground and a footy to win in the middle of the ground. A solid plan.

It was Mike Tyson who said everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

At the opening centre bounce Damien Hardwick walked past me and let me know a few things about what I was about to encounter. The fact that I remember that moment 25 years later makes me think it hit the mark.

The ball was smacked into the ground by the umpire in front of 78,000 people and soon after a ball was kicked high to a pack of players. I had a decision to make: “Do I go into that pack or not?” To not go wasn’t the wrong decision in this instance, to go would have been the right decision. I didn’t go.

James Hird went. He marked the ball. I had that knot in my stomach you have as a footballer when there is an incident like that.

We were smacked in every area of the game and lost by 70 points after beating the Bombers the week before in the final home-and-away round.

For the Monday review we were back in the Graeme Richmond Room. I remember three things from the meeting: First, “Spud” yelled to a level where staff in other parts of the building went outside to see if there had been an earthquake. This is not made up.

Second, he put up a list of players who had performed in big games and ones who hadn’t. He finished with the following: “I can tell you, this week is not just another f—ing game!”

Our mindset for the following week’s final against Carlton was completely different. Ruckmen Ray Hall and Mark Porter spent the afternoon going at each other like two raging bulls. Andrew Kellaway went into a pack in the first five minutes in a way that set the tone for his teammates. We beat the Blues by 11 points in front of 83,000.

That’s a very long-winded way of saying that I expect we will see a very different Fremantle team on Friday night from the one that was beaten so badly by Hawthorn in Perth last week.

Only the Dockers will know whether they treated it just like another game, or were just nervous, or just met a team that, for some reason, was just more up for the fight.

Strategy, game plan – call it what you will – is critically important in football and played a part in the Fremantle v Hawthorn game, as well as Sydney’s remarkable qualifying final victory over the Brisbane Lions.

But what was more obvious in both matches was the winning team’s intent to take the game to the opposition in every facet.

I’ve always thought that if two players attack a 50-50 ball and one goes harder at it than the other, the chance of the ball falling to that player’s teammates is well above 50 per cent. Champion Data may prove me wrong, but until they do, I’m running with it.

Sydney, for all their strategy and skill, attacked the ball and the opposition with a ferocity not often seen.

The surprising aspect of the Swans’ performance wasn’t that they were ferocious – the way they sustained that ferocity was indeed incredible – but the score they put on the board. Going into the game, they were rank outsiders to win.I can’t imagine the odds of them putting 141 points on the board, in cyclonic winds for a quarter, and winning by 53 points.

The surprising facts about the Dockers were that they were beaten, and they only scored 40 points, and they were beaten by 32.

The point of this is that for all the mechanics of the game, intent still accounts for so much. When you combine mechanics and intent, you get performances like Hawthorn’s and Sydney’s.

Two days after that famous Richmond victory over Carlton in 2001, two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre buildings in New York, and the world changed.

Three days after that, the AFL’s airline partner Ansett went belly-up, changing the way our team and its supporters travelled to Brisbane for the preliminary final.

We played to our full potential against a team that would go on to win the first of three consecutive premierships. We lost by 68 points.

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Wayne Campbell is a former Richmond captain and All-Australian, ex-Gold Coast football manager, and the current boss of the Sydney Swans academy.AdvertisementAdvertisement