Saturday night’s Starlight Purple Haze Game will be a special occasion for a number of reasons. It’s our first home game of 2011 which presents us with a great opportunity to play in front of our fans after getting a courageous come-from-behind victory up in Brisbane. It’s also fantastic to celebrate the Starlight Foundation through the Purple Haze Game.

We as players love playing in front of our crowd because you are our edge, but even more so we love playing in this game because we know what a significant amount of money is raised for the Starlight Foundation.

It will also be unique given that this will be the first time we run out onto our home ground wearing our new guernseys, which will carry the symbolic yellow star of the Starlight Foundation on the front.

On-field, this week presents an opportunity for us to continue our season on a successful note after winning in Brisbane last week. We didn’t play anywhere near as well as we would have liked to, but given our somewhat tumultuous pre-season, we were satisfied to come away with a victory, especially considering that Brisbane was fired up and ready-to-go for Round 1.

The Lions hadn’t lost a Round 1 game at the Gabba since 1998. Yes, they had a few players go off with injury leaving them undermanned for the rest of the game, but there was some real desire and guts shown by our guys to get over the top of them after trailing in the last quarter.

I think it speaks volumes for the maturity and the development of the group. A couple of seasons ago we often found ourselves in similar situations late in games where the result hung in the balance. More often than not we ended up on the wrong side of the ledger.

But playing football is like any aspect of life. You live, you learn. The large core of the team that represented Fremantle in Brisbane last Saturday night has been in the system for three or four years and, as a leader of the group, it’s heart-warming to see those guys overcome adversity and fight it out till the very end.

It won’t be getting any easier against Geelong, who will be an incredibly tough challenge for us this week. They’ve still got a host of premiership players so we are under no illusions as to the task we face on Saturday night.

We’ve had a light week on the track given the significant travel we’ve had to and from Brisbane and the new rotation system. We needed to freshen up and hit the ground running for the Cats' game.

Our former assistant coach Chris Scott will be acutely aware of our strengths and weaknesses so we might have to tinker with one or two things around our game plan. But we are confident that we can overcome that and get the victory on the weekend.

On a personal note, Saturday will be my 238th game for the club, which will equal the games record held by a Freo great, Shane Parker.

Equalling Shane’s record is something I’m really proud of. I don’t want to be disrespectful of the record, but for me what’s much more important is getting the victory and the guys understanding the way we need to play against a team that’s been in the top echelon of the competition, if not the best team in the competition over the past four years.

It’s a good achievement and I’m glad I can share the milestone with someone like Shane, who I highly regarded in my early time at the club, but the victory will be much more important than anything else.

I can’t wait to see our fans at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night creating a Purple Haze and cheering the guys on to a win.

As I stated earlier, you are our edge. Your support in 2010 was incredible and, as captain of the side, I speak for all the players when I say having all of you in our corner inspires us to no end. Keep it up and Go Freo!