Fremantle coach Mark Harvey was left ruing two fateful songs played on the car radio during his drive to Subiaco ahead of the Dockers' courageous 19-point loss to Geelong.
With his tongue firmly in cheek, Harvey praised his young side's courage in sticking with the premiership favourites for four quarters but admitted he may have had a slight premonition of how the day would turn out before the match had even started.
"In the car on the way in, I put in a CD and the first two songs were, and I didn't wake up, was the 'Year of the Cat'. I found myself singing to the 'Year of the Cat'," Harvey sheepishly admitted.
"And then I had to check myself, understanding what was about to happen in two hours time, and then 'It's a Heartache' was the other (song that came on)."
While Al Stewart and Bonnie Taylor may not be to everyone's tastes, there was plenty to like about the young Dockers, who applied some real pressure on Geelong during the opening term, harassing the Cats into numerous mistakes through 25 tackles before quarter-time.
Geelong's class came to the fore during the second quarter however, the Cats winning all the relevant stats as they scored five goals to two to lead by 13 points at the main break.
It appeared the result was going to be a formality after half-time as Geelong took control of possession and charged forward at will. But the Cats' conversion let them down, their 2.7 for the quarter giving Fremantle a sniff, one it duly took with four late goals as both sides went into the final quarter on level terms.
But in the end, a fairytale win over the premiership favourites wasn't to be as Geelong scored five goals in the final term, two of them coming from Steve Johnson, who slipped a tight Greg Broughton tag to score two in the quarter's first seven minutes.
Harvey, though, was particularly proud of Broughton's efforts, saying it typified the performance of his team.
"Obviously Steve's a great player, a unique player in the way he plays and I thought ... young Broughton sort of came of age playing on a guy like that."
"He was dogged, he was at him and knocked him off line a couple of times when he needed to and I think Steve kicked three, so in the end it was an even contest."
"I think what happens is, you've got this young side that's enthusiastic and they hang off everything and you just need things to go you way at times."
"It would be fair to say that they are a better disposal side than us, but I think our competitive nature was right up there with what I would expect from a group that was playing against a great side."
"We gave ourselves an opportunity in the game in the last quarter to dethrone their winning sequence."
"And, that experience (of big) games will tell you that in time, things will turn around."
"But, as I said, that song keeps coming back to me, it's a heartache."
