Sport is tribal. We all know that. It’s my tribe against your tribe. My colours against your colours. My happiness, self-esteem and general mood for the next week, all hanging on whether a bunch of blokes I mostly don’t know can kick a ball through two big sticks.

That’s footy. But every now and then, football becomes bigger. Every now and then, it’s not club versus club — it’s State versus State. And after the next Western Derby, it might be time for West Coast supporters to do something that feels deeply uncomfortable.

It might be time to get behind our friends who like to wear purple.

Now before Eagles fans tear this page out and use it to line the bottom of a budgie cage, hear me out.

Yes, it sounds like the ultimate betrayal to support your arch rivals Fremantle during a finals campaign, perhaps seen as akin to barracking for your ex to find the perfect new partner.

Nobody wants to do it. But if your team can’t win the flag, why not the mob down the road?

After all, we’re talking about Western Australia here.

If your team is out of contention come September, perhaps it’s Wharfie Time for us all. Because something has changed at Fremantle. And here’s the biggest newsflash of all.

For years, simply uttering the word “Flagmantle” felt dangerous. It was football’s equivalent of saying “Macbeth” in a theatre.

You didn’t say it out loud because the football gods might be listening and you could jinx the team.

In the past, the moment Dockers supporters started believing is exactly the time something inevitably went wrong.

That’s why “Flagmantle” became a bit of a joke. A meme. A warning sign.

But I reckon those days are over. Go all in, Freo fans.

Throw “Flagmantle” around as much as you like. The days of the Dockery Dockers are gone.

For the uninitiated, “Dockery” became the catch-all term for anything uniquely, frustratingly, hilariously or catastrophically Fremantle.

It meant losing games they should have won. Missing opportunities. Finding creative ways to make life difficult. It meant bizarre injuries, strange umpiring decisions and general purple chaos.

It described the emotional roller-coaster of supporting Fremantle: hope, heartbreak, optimism, disappointment. Repeat until exhausted.

Freo fans could never relax. Never fully trust that things would be OK. But something feels different now. Fremantle are no longer Dockery.

That word is redundant. Previous Dockers teams struggled with expectation. They’d build momentum, attract hype and then immediately trip over their own shoelaces.

A big win would be followed by a baffling loss. Momentum would be followed by disappointment.

This team has outlived that curse. The numbers tell the story. No WA-based AFL side has ever won 13 consecutive matches. Not even the mighty Eagles teams of old.

The record set by Mick Malthouse and his merry men was 12.

And let’s be honest, that side was practically a State team wearing blue and gold. Ben Cousins. Chris Judd. Dean Cox. Daniel Kerr. One of the greatest midfields ever assembled, and even they couldn’t reach 13. Adam Simpson’s premiership team won 10 in a row and 10 straight derbies, but they never got close to this territory.

Fremantle are operating in rare air. The Dockers now sit as outright premiership favourites and, for the first time in a very long time, it doesn’t feel premature. They’ve earned it. They’ve won close games. They’ve won ugly. They’ve won shootouts.

Most importantly, they’ve developed something every genuine premiership contender possesses: calmness, poise . . . and belief that if and when things go awry, a momentum shift is just around the corner, a sequence of goals the result.

There is no panic. No overreaction. Just confidence in their game plan. Everyone is rowing in the same direction.

This group is resilient. They trust their system and stick to it. That’s what mature football teams do.

Yes, there’s still a long way to go, and injuries happen and form can fluctuate.

Yes, finals football is a different beast. Nobody is handing Freo the premiership cup in June, but they’ve earned the right to be considered the team to beat.

For years, “Flagmantle” was a punchline. Now it’s a legitimate conversation.

And the biggest change of all: for the first time in a long time, Fremantle supporters aren’t simply dreaming. They’re believing.

And perhaps that’s the strongest sign yet that the Dockery Dockers are gone.

The word Flagmantle no longer feels like a curse. It feels like a possibility.