Fremantle's Wharfie Time celebration backfires in AFL Grand Final loss to Brisbane Lions

As the bells tolled around the MCG on Saturday, Fremantle fans screamed in exhilaration.

This was finally their moment in the premiership sun after 31 long years of waiting.

Wharfie Time had arrived, and with four minutes and 18 seconds left on the clock, there was surely no way that the Dockers could bottle this one — particularly with their viral celebration in full swing.

And then it all fell apart.

What is Wharfie Time?

You will no doubt have heard about it by now.

Before this year the phrase "Wharfie Time" would likely never have passed your ears, and now it's all the AFL world can talk about.

Wharfie Time is a viral celebration the Dockers have been using sparingly in close games at Perth Stadium during the 2026 season.

It's only ever used after a Fremantle goal, it's only ever used once in a game, and it's designed to get the crowd up and about to inspire the Fremantle players to see the game out as strongly as possible.

The lights in the stadium dim, leaving only an eerie glow of purple, as the bells from ACDC's song Hells Bells toll through the stadium and the words "Wharfie Time" appear on the big screen.

The Dockers have recently gone all-in on embracing ACDC, with former lead singer Bon Scott buried in the area due to his family emigrating there when he was young.

A guitarist at the top of the stadium starts every game playing Hells Bells, with the whole show being Fremantle's answer to the after goal songs that the Brisbane Lions do, or Port Adelaide fans singing INXS's Never Tear Us Apart before a game.

But what does the phrase 'Wharfie Time' even mean?

Great question.

It all goes back to former Dockers skipper and now Sydney Swans boss Matthew Pavlich using the phrase in a pre-match rev up in 2009.

Pavlich was mic'd up before the match and was caught telling his teammates "put on your Superman capes boys, it's Wharfie Time", as can be seen at 39 second mark of the video below.

When it happened nobody really knew what the hell he was talking about. The "Wharfie" part was in reference to the dock workers and the club's mascot being the Dockers, but mixing it with Superman capes reference was a little … odd.

It went down in viral footy moments folklore, on par with Brett Kirk's infamous "Thanks Basil" speech.

The Dockers went on to embrace the quirkiness of it all and started the Wharfie Time celebration this year.

How did it backfire in the grand final?

In the lead-up to the match there had been a heap of talk around whether the Dockers would be allowed to use Wharfie Time at the MCG.

The Lions and the Cats had been allowed to use their goal celebrations in the 2025 grand final, with Charlie Cameron's Take Me Home, Country Roads celebration a particular fan favourite, often appearing to lift the Lions when they needed it most.

On the morning of the grand final, it was finally properly confirmed — the Dockers would be allowed to use Wharfie Time in the 2026 decider.

Just after confirmation, Brisbane football manager Danny Daly confirmed to ABC Sport's Corbin Middlemas and Ben Cameron that coach Chris Fagan had played the tolling bells to his Lions players in their Friday afternoon meeting. He didn't elaborate further.

We then witnessed one of the great grand finals in the history of the game.

After an incredible to-and-fro throughout, with 4 minutes and 18 seconds left on the clock, Fremantle's Patrick Voss kicked a goal to put the Dockers up by 17 points.

The bells started to toll. Dockers fans went wild. It felt as if the end was nigh.

And the Lions came back from the dead.

Legendary Lions coach Leigh Matthews has always said that he thinks the absolute limit of how many goals a team can kick in a particular amount of time is one goal per minute left.

Four minutes left. Four goals for the Lions. Heartbreak for the Dockers.

Several Lions players would go on to elaborate on Daly's earlier reveal to ABC Sport, saying Fagan had told them to use Wharfie Time against the Dockers, energising their own game instead.

"We talked about Wharfie Time and making that our energy [before the game]," Lions midfielder Josh Dunkley said.

"When I looked around at centre bounce and Wharfie Time came on, we all looked at each other, and connected, grew a leg and got it done.

"It's unbelievable."

Other players would say they felt the Dockers thought they had it won, and that you could feel the energy immediately rise in the Brisbane camp.

It was an inspired bit of coaching.

Will the Dockers use Wharfie Time again?

As ABC Sport writer Dean Bilton wrote in his analysis of the game, "it's cursed forever now, those bells now more likely to trigger an untimely bout of PTSD than to inspire the Freo faithful".

The Dockers have not confirmed or denied, and we may have to wait until the first close clash at Perth Stadium next year to know if Wharfie Time has been finally laid to rest.