Many were expecting 2023 to be the year Fremantle surged toward the top four and made a charge at their first-ever flag. Let’s face it – it’s time they did. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I am not sure there has been a more disappointing team over the course of the season.
Several people have mentioned to me that the players leaving Freo after a pretty successful 2022 season indicated an issue with the culture of the club. I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now. From where I sit, those who left were either someone the club was better off not keeping (Rory Lobb), someone who had players already occupying his preferred position (Griffin Logue) or players who were not in the best 22 at Fremantle (Darcy Tucker, Connor Blakely). The only big loss, I felt, was Blake Acres, as he had grown into his role at Freo and had started looking like a genuine elite wingman for the first time in his career.
Maybe it was the loss of club legend, David Mundy, that triggered the slide? You can replace a player, after all, but you cannot replace their presence. Maybe it was the ongoing injury issues to Nat Fyfe? Or maybe it was the lack of a tall marking presence inside fifty that reared its ugly head when Matt Taberner once again succumbed to injury. Irrespective of the reason, the fall from the tenuous grace Freo experienced in 2022 came suddenly. And as per usual, it is not the fall that hurts, but the sudden landing.
Sitting in 15th position with five games remaining, the Dockers have put the cue in the rack.
Sean Darcy is done for the year, as is Nat Fyfe. Justin Longmuir has done the coaching equivalent of throwing his hands up in exasperation and commenced looking to 2024 as his team attempts to regroup. But how do they do this?
They have traded away their 2023 first-round pick, which has resulted in Melbourne death riding Freo in order to obtain a high draft pick – it is currently the fourth pick, which has to make Dockers fans feel a little sick. Freo have a strong nucleus in the middle, an incredibly powerful defence, and a fleet of small forwards that would be the envy of clubs like North Melbourne, Richmond, and GWS, but the team remains a shadow of what it was just 12 months ago.
What do they need to do?
That’s what I’m here for.
The following analysis is not intended to be a case of kicking a team while they’re down – not by a long stretch. It is meant to examine what the Freo Dockers are, what they were, and what they could be again in 2024.
Though this year has been a complete and utter bust, you could argue that this team jumped ahead of themselves by a couple of seasons in 2022. Now, they have the opportunity to get things right again.
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