Wharfie Time is a slogan used by the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). It is used by the club as a crowd activation, typically during the last quarter of selected home matches at Optus Stadium.
During the activation, big screens at the venue show a container ship crashing through waves, accompanied by the sound of a heartbeat and the tolling bell intro from the AC/DC song "Hells Bells"; this is used to rally the team and excite the crowd in the remaining minutes of a close match.
Although Wharfie Time was first activated late in the 2023 AFL season, its popularity and prominence grew substantially in 2026, with Fremantle finishing minor premiers and pursuing its first premiership in the club's 32-year history. Wharfie Time's apparent ability to swing momentum in Fremantle's favour and "spook" opposing sides became a major talking point in the football world, with some crediting its use as a factor in Fremantle's on-field success.
Wharfie Time gained media attention and became the focus of AFL Media after being used in Fremantle's prime time fixture in Round 9 of the 2026 AFL season against , having been barely noticed during any of the past activations, including Fremantle's one point loss to in the 2025 finals series.
Origins The Fremantle Football Club was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia. The club is nicknamed the "Dockers" in reference to Fremantle's maritime and dockworker heritage; "wharfie" is a slang term for a dockworker. A 2026 report in the Australian Financial Review dates the "wharfie time" phrase back to the club's early years in the AFL, when commentators supposedly used the term to refer to the Dockers' frequent Sunday afternoon timeslots.
Matthew Pavlich speech (2009)
The slogan first gained public visibility in round 8 of the 2009 AFL season during Fremantle's match against at Subiaco Oval. Speaking before the start of the match (while fitted with a microphone for Seven Sport's broadcast), then-Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich told his teammates: "Hey, put on your Superman capes, boys – it's wharfie time". Fremantle lost the match by 22 points.
Quizzed by media in the week following the match as to the backstory behind the "wharfie time" concept, Pavlich's teammate Luke McPharlin was stopped by club officials from explaining its lore, but an article in The West Australian at the time said it was "understood to underpin the core values the players have committed to this season".
Vision of Pavlich's speech was later replayed on a 2016 episode of Friday Front Bar ahead of his 350th AFL game, where the hosts poked fun at the concept of "wharfie time" and struggled to explain what the phrase actually meant.
Continuation of "wharfie ethic" (2014)
A 2014 newspaper interview with the since-retired McPharlin and his former teammates Shaun McManus and Paul Hasleby elaborated on the meaning of the term for the first time. While Pavlich's reference to "Superman capes" was born out of a speech in a team meeting by McManus almost two years earlier, where the latter likened pulling on an AFL club guernsey to donning a Superman cape, the "wharfie time" concept was a new addition based on the values and standards of the playing group.
As Hasleby explained, the "wharfie spirit" was manufactured in a similar fashion to the "Bloods culture" at , which had reached public prominence after the Swans' drought-breaking 2005 premiership. "At the time, the thinking was that wharfies and how they were hard workers was worth adopting into our values. To everybody else, it probably didn't mean much, but to the players who were kicking around in that environment, it meant a hell of a lot."
Midfielder Matt de Boer, then in his sixth season at the club, said the phrase was still relevant to his current teammates, explaining "we've really bought into the wharfie terminology and look to bring the wharfie ethic to games and put the work boots on."
Introduction of fan activation (2023–2025) A version of the Wharfie Time activation was launched for the first time during Fremantle's round 21 match against Brisbane in the 2023 AFL season. The activation was the brainchild of Pavlich, who would later say that Wharfie Time became "the people's thing". Players and fans were given no warning prior to its introduction, as the club "deliberately kept a veil of secrecy" in a bid to grow the concept organically.
The activation was later expanded on as it grew in both familiarity and popularity over the coming seasons, becoming aligned with exciting finishes to Dockers home games. In March 2025, Fremantle uploaded a video to its Docker TV YouTube channel outlining the changes to the gameday experience at home matches for the upcoming season; the introduction of the AC/DC song "Hells Bells" during Wharfie Time and the pre-match coin toss was announced.
Activation criteria Conjecture has reigned across the football community as to both who declares the use of the Wharfie Time activation and at what stage of a game it can be employed.
A May 2026 Code Sports article documenting the history of Wharfie Time revealed that the supposed "trigger" for use of the activation was when the Dockers were within two goals of the opposition deep into the fourth quarter of a game. Published after the activation's first use for 2026 during the Dockers' round 9 defeat of , the article also specified that it was Fremantle's game day events team – led by Kellie Black and Olivia Minutillo – who motioned to the scoreboard operators when to activate Wharfie Time on that occasion.
On an early August 2026 episode of The Agenda Setters, co-host Caroline Wilson declared that the ultimate call for when to activate Wharfie Time rested with the club's chief executive officer Simon Garlick. "He won't admit it," Wilson said. "I've quizzed him about it, he refuses to say it's him – he is the man who has the link to the scoreboard (operator)."
Based on matches where it has been used, the criteria for Wharfie Time to be activated appears to require: a Fremantle home match, away matches in Western Australia do not count for this the game being in the 4th quarter the match time of the quarter being less than 4 minutes. the game being close (margin being two goals or less) either way. a Fremantle goal being kicked (in the past it has played during play, which has been later disallowed by the league).
Across the 12 instances where the activation has been used, not all of the criteria has necessarily been met. Instances of this include the 2026 Semi Final and 2026 Grand Final.
Usage
2023 season Use of the Wharfie Time activation, albeit in its nascent form, took place for the first time in Fremantle's round 21 home game against Brisbane during the 2023 AFL season. Following a banana kick goal from Michael Frederick with one minute and nine seconds remaining that cut the margin to two points, a purple and white wave video was displayed on the LED screens around Optus Stadium alongside the phrase "wharfie time". The Dockers lost the game by three points.
2024 season The slogan was revived during the second week of Sir Doug Nicholls Round in round 11 of the 2024 AFL season, when Fremantle (competing that week as Walyalup) played host to at Optus Stadium. Trailing by 25 points midway through the final quarter, the Dockers rallied with four straight goals to cut the margin to a single point. With less than two minutes remaining, the activation then appeared. The game ultimately finished in a draw. Wharfie Time was later used in a round 22 loss to , activated during a brief centre-square stoppage before the Cats kicked the sealer just seconds later.
2025 season The activation was used on four occasions by Fremantle during the 2025 AFL season, this time accompanied by the soundtrack of AC/DC's "Hells Bells". After its use in a loss to Collingwood in round 9, it was revived for wins over (round 16), (round 18) and (round 21). It was activated for the final time that season during the elimination final loss to .
2026 season
During the 2026 AFL season, Wharfie Time became the subject of increased attention and the activation was used by Fremantle during three matches. The club finished the season as the minor premiers and had a 14-match winning streak that lasted from round 2 until round 17. In April 2026, the AFL applied to trademark the phrase. This attracted the ire of Pavlich, who said that while "the reality is the AFL is a commercial beast and they can do what they like", his view was that it was "the people's term".
In its round 9 match against at Optus Stadium, Fremantle activated Wharfie Time while losing by four points with four minutes remaining in the final quarter; the Dockers would subsequently kick three goals to win by 15 points. After the match, Hawthorn player Dylan Moore said he was unsure what Wharfie Time was until it was activated and described it as "quite distracting". Hawthorn returned to Optus Stadium to play Fremantle in the first qualifying final and won by 32 points.
Throughout the season after this match, Wharfie Time was regularly brought up by AFL Media, especially with commentators speculating whether it would be used in each game, even wanting it to be used early in games. One of these games was Fremantle's record breaking Round 13 win against , however it would not be able to be used as it was Fremantle's away match. Fremantle played in close games at home during the season where Wharfie Time could have been used, however the criteria needed to play the activation was never met. As Fremantle became favourites for that year's premiership, there was discussion on whether Wharfie Time would be allowed during the Grand Final, and claims surfaced that it was already in discussion. The Australian Football League moved to trademark the phrase "Wharfie Time" shortly after the Hawthorn match.
During Fremantle's semi-final against , the club finally activated Wharfie Time again after its lead was reduced to eight points with 75 seconds remaining; Patrick Voss kicked a goal from a centre clearance moments later and Fremantle won the match by 14 points.
2026 grand final Ahead of the 2026 AFL Grand Final against the , which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the AFL gave Fremantle the ability to activate Wharfie Time, setting rules including only allowing it to be played once and only after a Fremantle goal. Speculation had mounted throughout the week as to whether the activation would be allowed, given grand finals have typically been considered "neutral" matches with no fan activations for either competing side.
With four minutes and eighteen seconds remaining in the grand final, Fremantle activated Wharfie Time after Patrick Voss kicked his third goal to give the Dockers a 17-point lead (the highest lead of the match). Around one minute later, Brisbane's Charlie Cameron kicked a goal, followed by a goal from Zac Bailey and a goals Logan Morris that put the Lions ahead by one point. Morris had not scored any goals in the first three quarters, however was able to kick two in the fourth quarter up to this point winner after Fremantle skipper Alex Pearce went down with an achilles injury during the third quarter having prevented him from scoring during the game. In the final seconds of the match, Morris kicked another goal and Brisbane won by seven points.