MOORABOOL will have to wait at least another year to produce a third AFL premiership player, with Nick Suban’s Fremantle Dockers out of the finals race.
After coming on as a substitute in the final quarter in a cut-throat semi-final at AAMI Stadium on Friday night, it looked as though the fresh legs of Darley’s Suban would inspire the Dockers to victory.
Fremantle was down by five points at the last change, but Suban skipped around an Adelaide defender in the opening minutes of the final term to snap a brilliant goal from the right pocket.
But Suban was only able to muster one more possession as the Crows ran away with the match and booked their place in this week’s preliminary final with a 10-point win. In his fourth season of AFL football, Suban, 22, played 14 games, averaging 10 dispoals a match.
Mother Barb drove to Adelaide for the game. She said while the post-match mood in the club rooms was sombre, Suban was reasonably happy with his season. “He really liked the new coach Ross Lyon,” she said. “He had an up and down year, with a few games in the WAFL.”
Bacchus Marsh’s Fred Wooller won a premiership with Geelong in 1963, while Darley’s Marcus Wheelan won a Brownlow Medal and played in five consecutive grand finals with Collingwood from 1935, winning flags in ’35 and ’36.
