The pilgrimage of Fremantle fans to Optus Stadium may not be quite as easy and stress-free as they would have liked.

But just as they have throughout the club’s best ever home and away season, Dockers diehards are painting the venue purple for the start of a hugely-anticipated finals campaign.

On the back of claiming the AFL’s minor premiership for just the second time in their 32-year history, Fremantle are hosting Hawthorn for their first qualifying final since their home games shifted to Burswood nearly a decade ago.

Some small pockets of brown and gold representing the visiting Hawks were positioned behind both sets of goals, but the rest of the stadium’s 60,000 seats were filling up in favour of the home side.

For the fourth time this season, the AFL have granted the Dockers hosting rights for a game fixtured in their new marquee timeslot of Thursday night.

And while the move represents the club’s growing stature in the competition, it can present challenges for Perth’s public transport system and road network, which must also contend with standard peak-hour traffic.

The trains were packed and there was some congestion on the roads ahead of the start of the contest, but neither Transperth nor Main Roads — who both encouraged fans to allow some extra travel time — reported any major issues.

Up to 6mm of rain was forecast on Thursday but the majority of the precipitation is expected to already have fallen.

A brief shower just over half an hour before the game’s scheduled start at 6.10pm sent some fans searching for cover, but any inclement weather during the clash is only expected to come in brief spells.

The Dockers set an AFL record by playing in front of a crowd greater than 50,000 people for the ninth home game running in the penultimate contest of their home and away campaign against Adelaide last month.

And they appear certain to extend that streak to 10 this evening, with general public tickets for the qualifying final selling out in less than an hour after they went on sale last Thursday.