WAFL 2024: South Fremantle coach Todd Curley dares to dream of finals appearance after Perth thriller

Outgoing South Fremantle coach Todd Curley has been around long enough to know there aren’t often fairytales in football, but this isn’t stopping him from daring to dream. The Bulldogs kept their finals hopes alive with a thrilling 7.1 (43) to 6.2 (38) win over Perth at Mineral Resources Park on Saturday. A Manfred Kelly goal in the final minute was all that separated the two sides, but most importantly for the Bulldogs it kept them within two premiership points of the fifth-placed Claremont. South Fremantle now need to beat West Perth on Saturday and hope that Subiaco can upset the Tigers less than 24 hours later for them to play finals in 2024. Curley announced this week he’d finish his incredible tenure as Bulldogs’ coach at the end of this season, but when that is has yet to be decided. The 2020 premiership coach said all they could do was beat the Falcons and then wait to see where their fate would lie. “Obviously the aim is to win Saturday and put pressure on the other teams, that’s all we can do,” Curley said. “There are not often fairytales in footy but who knows, maybe this can be one. We scrape through and then see what happens. “They’ve been chasing for most of the year, so hopefully we can put some pressure on them and you never know.” In the opposite coaches’ box was Perth interim coach Mark Stone who stepped in after Peter German resigned earlier in the week. Stone is set to be in hot demand at both WAFL and AFL level after a strong career at multiple AFL clubs including Brisbane, Fremantle, Sydney and West Coast. The former Lions strategy coach said his focus was firmly on the Demons’ final game of the season against Swan Districts for now. “I have a passion for coaching, I absolutely love it, but all I’m really thinking about right now is next week, making sure the boys have a fun week on the track and making sure that we give a good account of ourselves. That we don’t take a step forward and then another step back,” Stone said. “And then personally, for me, I will sit back and think about things at the end of the season, but right now, all I’m thinking about is how can we help these guys enjoy the last week of their season. “I’ll think about what’s next after that.”