Fremantle Dockers hype continues to grow at Optus Stadium with a purple menu for Thursday’s blockbuster final

Excitement for the Fremantle Dockers’ AFL finals showdown against Hawthorn has reached all-consuming levels in the Optus Stadium kitchen, where chefs have unleashed a purple takeover of the football food menu.

Thursday night’s sold-out crowd of close to 60,000 fans will be the first to indulge in a limited edition purple beer, the Purple Reign, which they can pair with one of several new Dockers-themed food items.

The Anchor Drop burger is an eye-catching purple bun with an anchor stamped onto its lid, filled with marinated chicken, a pineapple ring and jalapeno-wasabi slaw.

The Wharfie Burger is a nod to Freo’s fishing heritage, featuring a herb-crusted slab of WA snapper dashed with pepper and onion relish and beetroot slaw inside a focaccia bun.

Fans can also grab a sweet treat in the form of a purple cupcake with a white chocolate Dockers anchor on top. Local bakery Little Home Bakery has prepared 2500 to sell at the game - all in purple, none in the colours of the Hawks’ brown and gold strip.

The stadium’s food and beverage boss Gemma Hansen said it’s all to ensure the tens of thousands of fans can “come here and enjoy themselves and have a great day painting the joint purple”.

“There’s plenty of purple around the stadium for those fans that want to consume,” she said.

“Get in early, find your seats, get something to eat and drink, something purple, and then sit down, relax, and get ready for a really fantastic game that’s going to be a blockbuster.

“We’re expecting it to be a fantastic build-up. The pre-match is a really important part of entertainment for a finals game.

“Thursday nights are notoriously a late-arriving crowd, and you do not want to be caught outside the gate for the start of this game.”

The stadium expects 3200 burgers and at least 50,000 cups of beer will be consumed during the Qualifying Final, which is the first of four big finals around the nation the weekend.

Optus Stadium management also inked a five-year extension this week with beer supplier Gage Roads, which for the month of September will be serving its limited edition Purple Reign beer exclusively at the venue.