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Tony Liberatore can’t remember the Sherrin.
It’s an unfathomable prospect for the former Bulldogs midfielder. Then again, it’s part of an unfathomable story.

When Lleyton Hewitt recently appeared on Fox Footy Live, he recalled a group of Western Bulldogs players sitting in the fishbowl of Arthur Ashe Stadium the night the then-20-year-old upset Pete Sampras to claim the US Open, accelerating his rise to the youngest male World No. 1 in history.

As a stunned Flushing Meadows crowd tried to process what they’d just witnessed, a strange, red, oval-shaped ball flew through the humid New York air and landed square on the chest of Hewitt.
Liberatore’s former teammate Nathan Brown remembers it vividly.

“For some reason Tony Liberatore brought a brand new Sherrin. So we’re walking around Flushing Meadows for the final, we’re in the crowd for the final with a brand new Sherrin, people looking at us going ‘that’s a bit weird’,” Brown told foxfooty.com.au.

“At the end of the game, ‘Libba’ decided he was just going to hoof it from where we were up in the stands down to centre court … All of a sudden this Sherrin bounces around on the court down below and was pretty funny.”

Former Dogs ruckman Luke Darcy corroborated the story.

Still, Libba knows exactly what a footy looks and feels like – and the 1990 Brownlow Medalist just isn’t buying it.

“Look someone might’ve had a footy I don’t know, I definitely didn’t,” Liberatore told foxfooty.com.au.

Another Bulldogs teammate, Craig Ellis, was also part of the travelling party. But Brown suggested he wasn’t the greatest of eyewitnesses.

“Craig Ellis slept through the entire match, did not open his eyes the whole time,” he said.

“Big night the night before and, to be honest, Craig doesn’t care for things like that. He could either be there or he couldn’t be there. He just thought ‘I’m going to sit here and I’m going to have a sleep’ – and he’s like that.”

Whatever the case, that mythical Sherrin quite literally kicked off a fantastical night.

THE AFTERPARTY
“Lleyton waved up and caught our eye and invited us to the afterparty, which was very generous of him and it was a really fun night, you can imagine,” Darcy told foxfooty.com.au.

Liberatore might not remember the Sherrin bouncing onto centre court, but he has no issue recalling the afterparty.

“We went all the way down to the very, very back and there was this sort of table as long as a wedding table,” he said.

“And there’s Lleyton Hewitt … back in those days they had the bricks for the phone and he was talking to his mates back in Australia saying: ‘You wouldn’t believe it, the Bulldogs boys are here, we’re having drinks with them!’”

Yet as the drinks were flowing in the city that never sleeps, Liberatore was on edge. He was missing son Tom’s Under-9s basketball Grand Final.

Tony dialled up home base and put him on speaker, having worked his teammates into a state of frenzy over the result.

While one junior superstar had won in New York that night, another wasn’t as lucky Down Under: “Nah dad, we lost.”

It was a cruel blow for the Liberatores, but little did they know Tom would win the biggest title of all 15 years later in the Bulldogs’ memorable, drought-breaking premiership.

As the Bulldogs continued to party on, Hewitt’s all-in attitude on the court extended to his professionalism off it.

“Lleyton was pretty disciplined and a pretty focused young man, he took off well before we did. We celebrated maybe a bit more into the night than him was my memory,” Darcy said.

“Incredible sporting performance and one of the great nights afterwards. I always look back on that with a great smile own my face.”

NEAR GROUND ZERO AND A LIFE-SAVING BREAKFAST
Two days after a night the Dogs boys will never forget came a day the world would never forget.

The Twin Towers fell and the world changed forever.

Brown, like the rest of his crew and the world, remembers it vividly, not least because they were on their way to the towers when it happened.

“We were walking down there, it was the perfect day. I remember 27 degrees, perfect blue sky and then all of a sudden everything started to get dusty and it was just something that was out of this world,” he said.

“About an hour later there were tanks rolling through the street and this busy New York everybody knows was just deserted.”

Darcy noted their stop for breakfast may well have been their saving grace.

“It was surreal,” he said.

“We stopped for breakfast halfway. There’s a lot of people with those sorts of stories that ‘could’ve, maybe, would’ve been there’ – but certainly a couple of moments you never forget.”

Liberatore can still remember how quickly the trip went “from chocolates to boiled lollies”.
“It was a good night (with Lleyton Hewitt) but then September 11, I’ve never been more scared in my life.”

ONE FINAL TWIST
Amid all the chaos on a day that will never be forgotten, there was one more surreal moment to a trip that provided higher peaks and lower troughs than anyone could’ve imagined.

“We were walking back up to Darcy’s brother’s (Matt Darcy) house three or four hours after… we went past somewhere around Times Square. Michael Jackson walked out with probably about 10 entourage and a big mask on his face and got into a stretched limousine,” Brown said.”

“It was just a bizarre day.”

And it capped off an unforgettable trip.