WELL-KNOWN SCAFL identities Matt Fleet and Ben Harrop are in Melbourne for what could be the biggest weekend of their lives.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Fleet said he had come across some tickets to the AFL’s pinnacle match through a family friend in Melbourne, and when he came up with one extra he wasn’t taking anyone except Harrop.
“I rang him up and he went beserk,” Fleet said with a laugh.
The duo were driving down on Thursday with members of the Fleet family to catch a series of Hawthorn Hawks related events.
“We’ll be stopping at Waverley, hopefully he can meet a couple of them there and get an autograph or whatever,” Fleet said.
The next stop would be the AFL Footy Show, which airs on Thursday nights.
“Who knows what Benny might shout out there,” Fleet said.
The first port of call for the pair Friday morning will be the annual AFL parade in the streets of Melbourne.
Fleet said he was a “nuts Hawthorn supporter” and had been since his childhood.
He even has a 20-year club membership to prove it and his kids have been members since their birth.
Fleet said it would be fulfilling a childhood dream, as he had never been to a grand final game, let alone a Hawthorn one.
“It’s a childhood dream to go and, after a really long season, it will be a great wind down,” Fleet said.
“It will be so fun to have Benny next to me.”
It won’t be the first AFL game the pair have watched together, but could very well be the biggest.
“It’s the MCG, 100,000 people and as every hour ticks by I am realising it’s going to be a big thing in my life to go down there,” Fleet said.
Fleet will enjoy having good mate Harrop by his side for the game.
The pair have gone to live games before and Harrop is always a character.
Fleet recalled one match in particular.
“The best one was an Essendon game ... Essendon had come back over the top and I cracked it and I put in a heap of swear words and said ‘we’re never coming back’,” Fleet said.
“Benny just looked at me and said ‘no mate, no mate, Buddy [Franklin] will do something’.
“It turned out to be the game where Franklin kicked two goals of the century and Hawthorn won by about seven points.”
Fleet said Harrop had been by his side at the club for the past two years and looked forward to being at the game with him.
“There is a reason you hang around with people and the reason I hang out with Benny Harrop is he always puts a smile on my face,” he said.
“It’s not like I am laughing at him, we laugh together and we’re just good mates.”
RELATED AFL COVERAGE