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Peel Thunder star Brady Grey says the club is unbothered by commentary about their relationship with Fremantle as they prepare for the WAFL grand final.
11 Fremantle-listed players featured for the Thunder - fewer than their 2016 and 2017 premiership wins, which included 17 and 15 Dockers respectively - as they booked a place in the grand final for the third time in their history with a 24-point preliminary final win over Subiaco in Mandurah on Saturday.
Grey told Sports Breakfast the buy-in from AFL-listed players had always been excellent during his time with the club.
“It’s at the point where it doesn’t really matter what we say or what we do, it’s going to be written. We don’t read a lot into it,” Grey said.
“We know the connection and we know the time we spent building our connection between both groups.
“The 22 guys who run out on the weekend are wearing the Peel jumper, we’re representing the Peel community, we’re representing every player that’s played for Peel in the last 28 years.
“The really exciting thing for us is the guys that do come from Freo really do buy into that, we feel the guys that come down feel like they’re a part of the Peel team.”
A Fremantle player from 2014 to 2018, Grey will get the chance to feature for the Thunder in the season decider at the third time of asking after missing both of the club’s previous premierships due to injury.
The 28-year-old, who has played 107 WAFL games for Peel and Perth as well as spending time with Box Hill in the VFL, said his side’s key theme was embracing the opportunity.
“To be in a successful side that’s really in the mix, it doesn’t happen often in careers,” he said.
“We’ve got younger guys that are going through their first finals campaign and then we’ve got older guys like Trav Colyer, who’s in his 14th season and this is his first grand final.
“We know how unique these opportunities are and we’re just enjoying being in that position where we’re a chance to win it.
“It’s exciting to be in this conversation and still be a part of finals footy this late in the year.”
Geoff Valentine’s side booked their place in a season decider with a 24-point win over Subiaco last Sunday, with Grey saying the group drew great confidence from their win over the Lions in the qualifying final two weeks ago.
“Watching Subi-Claremont the week before, I think Subi kicked the first five goals of the game against them, so we knew the start was going to be important,” he said.
“Our starts have been inconsistent during the year so it was great to get out of the blocks early … we were able to control the game from there.
“We had a bit of a win in that first quarter, but being able to hold them in the second quarter really set up the game for us.”
The WAFL grand final between East Fremantle and Peel Thunder gets underway at 3:20pm on Sunday at Optus Stadium and is being broadcast live on 91.3 SportFM.
IMAGE: The Sunday Times