While there was plenty of pain for Fremantle fans on Saturday, a feelgood story has emerged of how four unsuspecting supporters were — earlier that morning — gifted the opportunity of a lifetime and handed free tickets to watch the epic battle live at the MCG.

Gun 7NEWS sports reporter Xander McGuire has revealed on the hit new podcast The Breakers, that a man and his young daughter from country Victoria were stunned when a random person approached them with a crazy offer that seemed just way too good to be true.

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“So, I know that you two, you’ve been in the game a long time,” McGuire cheekily said to his 7NEWS colleagues Mitch Cleary and Tom Morris.

“And with that comes a degree of cynicism, comes a degree of fatigue,” he continued, explaining that often the “warm and fuzzy” stories get left behind.

“But I’ve got a good one. 

“So there’s a guy, his name is Billy James Jones, he’s from Traralgon, and he’s a mad Freo Dockers supporter. And on grand final day he decided that he wanted to go up to Melbourne with his daughter, his mum, and his auntie, just to get a bit of a taste of the grand final vibe ... and his daughter had never been to the footy before.”

McGuire said the plan for Billy James and the family was to soak up the atmosphere and around Yarra Park and take in the AFL’s Footy Fest to get a feel of the grand final buzz that sweeps through the city.

“Anyway, ... they’re having a great day .... and this guy, he’s kicking the footy with his daughter, and the mum and the auntie are standing around. And this bloke comes up to him (and says), ‘Hey guys, how you going? ... Just going for a walk around. Who do you go for?’”

Billy responds, “Oh, mad Dockers supporters.”

Random starnger: “Where have you come from?”

Billy: “I come from Traralgon ....”

Stranger: “ What’s the plan for the day?”

Billy starts explaing the situation and the stranger said, “Oh, so you’re not going in?”

Billy: “No, we don’t have tickets.”

Stanger: “Do you want to go?”

McGuire said Billy was immediately perplexed.

Billy: “What do you mean? Do I want to go? Do I want to go into the grand final?”

Stranger: “I can get a ticket for you and your daughter if you want.”

Billy: “Are you are you kidding me? ... actually, I can’t take them because I’m actually part of a group of four. My mum and my auntie here.”

Stranger: “That’s alright, I’ve actually got four tickets”.

McGuire said Billy started to think “this can’t be right” and the stranger was possibly trying to scam him.

“Anyway, (the stranger) goes in, comes back out, bang, four tickets, lined up right there,” McGuire said on The Breakers podcast.

“What Billy didn’t know was that this guy goes by the name of Sean Williams, and he is the GM of ticketing at the AFL. And about an hour earlier, Sean was dotting the eyes and crossing the Ts, and realised that four corporate seats had slipped through the cracks, and they had four free tickets there.

Cleary and Morris both exclaimed: “Wow”.

McGuire continued: “So Sean decided, I’m gonna get up, I’m gonna walk outside, I’m gonna find four mad fans that don’t have a ticket, and I’m gonna give them the experience of a lifetime.’

Morris: “That is unbelievable.”

McGuire: “So he gave the four tickets to to Billy and his family.

“I was talking to Billy about this yesterday, and he just said he got inside (the MCG) and the emotion just hit him. He could not believe what had just happened.

“His daughter’s first ever game of football.”

McGuire told The Breakers he originally had heard some murmurs about the story and he was able to get in touch with Billy a bit later.

“He thought it was a scam to start with, and lo and behold, yeah, came up from Traralgon (and ends up at the grand final).

“He said he just wanted this story to come to light in the crazy world we live in, ‘where good people seem to be a dying breed ... a random act of kindness like this will forever be a special moment for me, my mum auntie, and daughter’.

“Unfortunately, ultimately, they didn’t win, the Dockers. But yeah, a pretty crazy (journey for the family).”

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*Note, quotes attributed to Billy and Sean Williams is how it was told by Xander McGuire, not actual quotes from those people.