Craig O’Donoghue: The excitement is papable as it hardly gets bigger than this weekend for WA sports

What a weekend for WA sport and wrestling fans. Footy is back. Wrestling is on. And you can swim to Rotto too! It’s going to be a weekend to savour. At times there will be people wondering where to look. What to watch. There’ll be multiple devices going. Highlights everywhere. For West Coast fans, you’re getting your first look at Harley Reid. Amid all the hype and all the expectation, this will be the time when everyone gets a glimpse of what could be possible for him as a West Coast player. I say possible. This is just a taste. He’s still a kid. He’s trained well. He’s dominated at junior level. But there’s a huge gap from what he’s experienced so far and a pre-season game against a real opponent. Then there’s another monumental jump to what it’s actually like to play a home and away game. But if you’re a West Coast fan, you’d love to see him unleash a ‘don’t argue’. You’d love to see him kick a goal. You’d love to see some examples of his pace and skill. It doesn’t matter how many times he touches the ball. You just want a taste. And most importantly, you don’t want him to get hurt. In fact, you don’t want anyone to get hurt. The biggest plus out of this weekend will be if every single West Coast player emerges unscathed. Let’s face it, the Eagles’ seasons have been over before they even began in recent years. Remember 2022? Elliot Yeo, Dom Sheed and Campbell Chesser all broke down against Freo at Mineral Resources Park. It was February 25. This game is February 24. Just get through healthy. Freo have declared youth is no longer a thing. Last year was a massive fall from grace after playing finals the previous season. Now they need to show that one step backward was part of moving two steps forward. We want to see ball movement. They were happy to take the game on during the intra-club game. We barely ever saw the Dockers kick the ball from wide on the half-back line to the centre square last year. That was too big a risk. But they’ve been doing that in training and the intra-clubs. Jordan Clark was taking daring runs too. That little sideways chip to get the safe movement out of the backline was replaced by having a fair dinkum crack at getting the ball forward quickly. There will be turnovers. Those errors will cost goals. But when it comes off, the dare will be worth it. We want to see Nat Fyfe doing Nat Fyfe things in the midfield. It’s been way too long since he’s had a clean run at things and we’ve been missing out. We want to see Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy in the same team and having a dual impact. Jackson was brilliant in the second half of the season as a pure ruckman. His forward skills appear to have improved too. The draftees will also get a chance. Just like Reid at West Coast, they’ll help to provide a glimpse of the future. It’s a new beginning. It’s exciting. Speaking of exciting, WWE fever has taken over Perth. Friday’s event on the outskirts of the stadium was genuinely wild. Chanting, singing, screaming, celebrating. When Triple H walked onto stage as a tease about 15 minutes before it started, the joint went bananas. When Australia’s Rhea Ripley came out to the ultimate home country welcome, she needed her sunglasses to cover her genuine emotions. When she did a shoey with Sydney’s Grayson Waller, it was a celebration of Australia. People started queuing at 8am for the best vantage points for that midday show. There were two hour waits to get into the Super Store in Perth on Thursday. People were queuing up for hundreds of metres before the doors even opened on Friday. The WWE have been brilliant at embracing WA the fans in Perth. They’ve been more accessible to the average fan than rockstars and sports stars. One thing they do better than any other industry is recognise that the fans are the most important people in the world. Hell, they even changed their plans for WrestleMania because the fans demanded Cody Rhodes fight Roman Reigns when the WWE was planning for The Rock to be in that match. Having seen the groundswell, The Rock became a bad guy, Rhodes got his title shot and fans were the big winners. The Elimination Chamber officially has 21 people advertised as either wrestling or speaking in the ring and there’ll be a tag-team match to hype up the crowd before the main matches begin. But plenty of other big names have come to town too. It has been an incredible display of professionalism from the wrestlers and the staff. They are doing everything in their power to spread the WWE message around the world and you can absolutely guarantee the fans will have the time of their lives, no matter what happens. The excitement is palpable. That’s what sport and wrestling is about - excitement. Fans want to yell, scream, celebrate, see their heroes and dream of iconic moments. Whether you’re a footy fan or a wrestling fan, this weekend will allow you to dream.