FOOTBALL media great – and Melbourne supporter – Mike Sheahan says Fremantle will win this year’s premiership.

The highly respected journalist believes Fremantle can secure its first flag in its inaugural Grand Final appearance against Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.

“I like Freo. I think they can win … the worry is whether Freo will play their game before the game actually arrives, because of the emotional build-up,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“The Freo boys are in the hands of a very, very good coach. Ross Lyon will know how to control. In the racing analogy, I think he’s a bit like Bart Cummings. He’ll have them ready and they won’t peak before the game.

“I can’t see a hole in the Freo side. I think their midfield is brilliant. They’ve got the best ruckman in the competition and I like their defence. I like their team defence and we know what their forward line is like and [Matthew] Pavlich has a got a really good record at the MCG. I’m really positive about the Dockers.”

Sheahan said he would live up to a journalist’s adage of ‘barracking for the story’ on Grand Final day.

“When I was working at the Herald Sun, I would never declare my allegiances in footy terms. I would just always say that I’d barrack for the story. And in fact, it was true. As a journo, the story takes precedence,” he said.

“The story for me this week would be Freo winning and the fallout that would follow from that, from perhaps the Hawks.

“But whatever happens, we’re all entitled to go to the game on Saturday, thinking it’s going to be a very memorable event.”

But Sheahan said there was “an element of romance” in Fremantle’s march to the last day of September.

“I’d like to see Freo win, because they haven’t won one - and this is not an anti-Hawthorn push. But they’re the only new club [aside from the Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney] that hasn’t won a flag,” he said.

“I love the way they play their footy now, with [Nathan] Fyfe and David [Mundy] and [Hayden] Ballantyne and all of those guys.

“I think they’re due, and I think they’ve earned their spot in the granny and it would be just so exciting if they were to win. I think they can, and I think that Aaron Sandilands is not only the biggest man in the game, I think he’ll have the biggest influence on Saturday [and win the Norm Smith Medal].”

Sheahan also said he had a “vested interest” in what happened to Hawthorn in the Grand Final. 

“I did gently float the idea that Clarko (Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson) might find himself in Perth next year coaching the Eagles. That was a hypothesis based on, in my view, logic,” he said.

“He’s been at Hawthorn for nine years, and they have declined to give him an extension past next year.

“West Coast has got all of this money and they might offer four or maybe five years, so I would think it’s got to appeal to him. If the Hawks lose, I reckon when the dust settled, the club and coach will get together and say ‘look, it’s been good, we’ve got a flag and we’ve always been competitive, but maybe it’s time for change’.”

Sheahan said he loved Grand Final week, although he had taken it a little bit easier this year.

“I tried something different on Monday; I didn’t go to the Brownlow for the first time in 30 years. I’m probably in better shape physically than I’ve been at this stage in a normal Grand Final week,” he said.

“You can’t not enjoy it – I’m really pleased that Freo’s in it. It just freshens it up, and I can’t wait for the build up of all the people from Perth being over here on Friday and Saturday, watching the Purple Haze at the MCG during the game.

“I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about watching a Grand Final.”