FREMANTLE'S recovery from the 2013 Grand Final started in the moments after that devastating loss.
It's been a process that has led them into their second home preliminary final and one win away from a chance at redemption.
"I love the passion, but we didn't win today," coach Ross Lyon said when he addressed the crowd at Fremantle's Grand Final dinner in 2013.
"We didn't create greatness when there was an opportunity for that.
I want us to be aware of that fact. I love the passion, but there's another step to go here before we're a great club."
Captain Matthew Pavlich was just as keen to remind the crowd of his team's objectives and their shortcomings.
He had received a text message in the days before the Grand Final that read: "Don't let the best you've already achieved be the standard for the rest of your life". The skipper wasn't satisfied and nor should the faithful be.
It was a coordinated message, echoed by president Steve Harris and CEO Steve Rosich, from a club that doesn't shoot from the hip but navigates its way strategically through the ruthless AFL landscape.
It was a message that said, we will do the work to be back on this stage. And the Dockers are now one win away from that aim.
For all their challenges in 2015, and the long line of statistics quoted to illustrate why they cannot win the premiership, it is worth backing over that point.
The Dockers are in the second home preliminary final in their history, 728 days and 33 wins since Lyon reminded the Purple Army the Dockers still had another step to go before they were "a great club".
"It's a very visible measure whether you have won or have not won a premiership cup," Rosich told the AFL Record in the build-up to Friday's preliminary final.
"Now that we're down to the last two weeks of the season and in a home preliminary final, we have that chance this year.
"It's up to us to make the most of it. We aim to be a premiership-winning club."
Read the full feature in this week’s edition of the AFL Record, available at both preliminary finals.
