There are a few people around who dislike games involving Ross Lyon-coached teams. They say they’re boring, slow, and produce horrible football.
There are also those who have derided the game style of the Dockers this season, with the new Champion Data “speed on the ball” rankings, having Freo ranked dead last giving them more ammunition.
When you combined the two teams, I am sure those people were looking at this game to reinforce their opinions, but instead, they’ll be reconsidering them after what these two clubs produced to conclude Round 16.
Those people likely love free-flowing “beautiful” football, and don’t much like good, hard footy. That’s what we got in this game – good, hard, footy, with both teams giving as good as they got.
For three quarters, the Saints asked questions of the Fremantle Dockers that the home team struggled to answer.
Soundly beaten at stoppages, and outworked in the contest, Freo were looking down the barrel heading into the last quarter.
And they responded. Not only did they do what was necessary to halt the Saints’ momentum, but they took over the aspects of the game that they were being beaten in – that is how a finals team responds!
I’ll be giving a heap of credit to both teams in this review – it was a ripping game of footy, with huge moments for both the players and their respective teams, but the last quarter of the Dockers stands out as the type of effort that can make a team.
Down by eight points, and having kicked just six goals for the game, Freo responded with a five-goal last quarter, riding on the back of huge lifts from Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw, and the continued excellence of Jordan Clark.
As Jack Higgins kicked the first goal of the final quarter, it appeared as though a huge upset may indeed be on the cards, but Freo responded with fire and brimstone, kicking three goals as a result of their big men up forward.
First it was Sean Darcy marking and goaling, and that was followed up with a strong lead out of the square from Luke Jackson. His goal brought the Dockers back within two kicks.
Then it was Josh Treacy storming out on a lead to kick his third of the day, and finally, it was Isaiah Dudley capitliasing on the only mistake Alix Tauru made all day to take the lead back for Freo.
It was the straw that broke the Saints’ back.
Normally, around this point of the review, I would boot out non-members, but given this was such a ripping game, and also that it is my birthday tomorrow, I am going to leave this open for everyone, and when you read it, and if you like it, I hope you consider becoming a member, or at least buying me a coffee for the work.
Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Big Questions.
IF FREO DID NOT HAVE A DUAL-RUCK COMBINATION, HOW DOES THIS PLAY OUT?
Well, if this game doesn’t shut the critics of the Freo ruck situation up, they’ll never keep their traps closed.
Battling against Rowan Marshall, who did a great job one out for the Saints, Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson tag-teamed well. Darcy was the bloke in the middle early to absorb the heat, and Jackson would swoop in both to relieve him, and play as a midfielder, as well.
The second aspect mentioned there permitted the Dockers to change things up on the fly, push Darcy forward without an opponent, and allow for mismatches as the Saints scrambled to cover.
The pair finished with three between them, with both big guys having huge says in the final quarter run that powered Freo home.
Marshall notched a solid 20/20 game, totalling 22 disposals and 26 hit outs, whilst Darcy controlled the ruck when he was in there, with 17 touches and 41 taps.
Jackson had 15 and 16 in the back up role, but his tank proved to be too much to handle late in the game, as it was him going forward and snagging two goals, including one after the siren.
Would Freo have won if they did not play both rucks?
That’s the question you throw at the critics of the dual rucks, because the answer is no. Without the ability to switch and change the matchup, Marshall may have been able to get a hold on the situation. He may have been able to run Darcy into the ground, or overpower Jackson to the point he wore him down.
By having both out there, Freo controlled that aspect of the game, even if it took three quarters for the mids to start working at the same level as their big men.
WHAT TYPE OF PLAYER IS ALIX TAURU GOING TO BE?
At 193 centimetres, Tauru is not going to be a huge key defender, but his attack on the footy is going to allow him to play big. As I watched him in this one, visions of a young Harris Andrews flittered through my mind, back when the Brisbane captain was hell-bent on killing every contest that came even remotely close to him.
That likely won’t be the case, as Andrews is 200cm and has a bigger reach than Tauru.
Then I started thinking about Dougal Howard.
People forget how good this bloke was before his soft-tissue issues slowed him down. When he was permitted to run and leap at the footy as a young defender, he was able to completely smash packs. He has two games recording over 20 one-percenters in a game.
But at 199 centimetres, he also has a bigger reach.
So, who then? Who will this kid develop into?
There is a touch of Glenn Archer about him. A touch of Jeremy McGovern – the aspects of their games that made them both loved and feared at the same time. Both of those guys threw themselves at the footy with complete disregard for their own safety.
And is that not what we saw from Tauru in this game?
Some of his efforts to make up ground, soar into a contest and make sure the ball was dead were first class, completely belying his experience, of just two games.
Archer was only 182 centimetres. McGovern is 197. If Tauru settles on a cross between them, the Saints could have something special on their hands. I loved watching him in this game, and it is rare that a second-gamer can have that type of effect.
DO WE HAVE TO PUT AN ASTERISK NEXT TO JORDAN CLARK’S BEST ON GROUND STATUS, GIVEN MAX HALL WAS HIS RESPONSIBILITY?
When a defender picks up 31 touches and 14 intercepts, it is not often that their performance is called into question.
And that is for a valid reason – they have obviously played a huge role in the win for their team, just as Jordan Clarke did in this one.
That said, I am a firm believer in defence being the first option for a defender, irrespective of their role, and Max Hall was Clark’s direct opponent in this game. He also had a huge influence on proceedings.
Clark probably won me over with his final quarter, where he was able to get the better of Hall, but over the course of the game, I actually had Hall on top in their duel. Touches off half-back are relatively easy to come by. Touches as a half forward are much more difficult to accrue, as they are in a far more dangerous part of the ground.
Yes, Clark gathered 31 possessions, and the 14 intercepts were a huge reason the Dockers were able to stay in the hunt, but Hall’s influence was marked, with 11 score involvements, including a goal of his own, and a direct goal assist, as well.
This was Hall’s 14th game after being picked up in last season’s mid-year draft. That he has been able to hold his place in the St Kilda side is a great outcome for him, and I hope his contributions are not glossed over.
As for Clark, this outing did no harm at all to his All-Australian chances. At 25 touches per game, his touches genuinely hurt teams, unlike plenty of others in his role. He’d be right at the top of the tree if I were naming my AA side right now. That said, I would like him to be defence-first just a little more often. No way a 14-gamer should have 21 touches playing against him.
HOW DID THE SAINTS BEAT THE DOCKERS MIDFIELD IN THE CLINCHES?
That was a hard work win, because Freo dominated the hit outs, 57-26, and yet heading into the last quarter, the Saints had a 39-16 clearance advantage.
The last quarter saw a reversal of the previous three, with the Dockers starting to assert more effort at stoppages, and working to win the footy off their own big man’s hand.
They won the last quarter clearances 15-7 in a clear indication that the mids finally got the message that they were being outworked.
Caleb Serong was being led to the footy by Hugo Garcia far too easily before he came to life in the final stanza, whilst Jack Macrae’s positioning was a lesson in how to anchor a defensive midfield setup.
Garcia is like a dog with a bone – not a classic tagger, but a genuine ball winner that will take some pride in beating his direct opponent. That was what he was doing to Serong in this one, and it had to have hurt Caleb’s pride a fair bit.
It would come as no surprise to Freo fans that Ross Lyon is a very good tactical coach, and in a way, it is both a credit and a criticism of Justin Longmire that he did work it out, and that it took him three quarters to get his players to elevate their effort.
Still, what Lyon was doing worked, and what Longmuir eventually coaxed out of his midfield worked well enough to get the Dockers over the line.
Ross would take the moral win. Justin would take the actual win.
I know which one I’d prefer.
WERE JOSH TREACY’S DEFENSIVE EFFORTS MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN ANY OF HIS OFFENSIVE ONES?
They were brilliant in this game, and it what makes him such an effective forward, even when he is not kicking goals.
His run-down tackle ion Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was a genuine highlight, as he made up 25 metres on the running Saints to lay that tackle. And it wasn’t just one of those half-baked chases that see a player lunge right at the end and get a hand on the fleeing player. This was a bruising takedown that smashed NWM into the deck, and won holding the ball.
To his credit, Big Wang was able to continue to push forward and minutes later, marked inside 50 and kicked a long goal.
Treacy’s other big defensive efforts came at the conclusion of the game, as he drifted down into defence to provide a big spoiling option for the Dockers. He has made this more a part of his game, becoming the type of player that naturally gravitates into defence when the Dockers need him late in games. This is a sign of maturity from Treacy, who is giving Fremantle everything he has, and more than they ever imagined they’d get from him when they picked him up on the cheap years back.
Of course, Treacy was right in the mix with goals, as well, slotting three for the game, including a vital one in the last quarter as the Dockers bridged the gap.
Right now, I know everyone is enamoured with Sam Darcy and what he could be, but there are a dozen big name forwards who could take a leaf out of Josh Treacy’s book, and how he attacks the contest both with, and without, the ball. In terms of key forward pressure, he is the standard by which all others are assessed.
HOW DID LIAM HENRY GO AGAINST HIS OLD MOB?
I found it interesting that Ross Lyon chose this game to re-introduce Henry to the St Kilda side, with his previous game for 2025 seeing him subbed out of the game with one disposal.
Henry played across half-forward, and flashed in and out of the game. Unfortunately, his flash out of the game lasted far longer than he, or Lyon, would have liked, missing for a long period of the second half.
He had a nice little dish in the last quarter to set up a goal, but for a player of his ability, the Saints will need more from him than just cameos.
Also, while I have the teams involved, I reckon Freo did a great job of “fattening up” Henry before they traded him. Check out his stats over his last couple of months out west. And then compare them to what he’s been able to do at St Kilda since.
WAS IT THE RIGHT MOVE TO KEEP NAT FYFE ON THE BENCH?
EDIT – This was written before viewing the presser of Justin Longmuir, so the “calf awareness” Fyfe was experiencing was not yet made public. Cheers.
Well, the result says yes, right?
As the game ticked into the final quarter, it quickly became apparent that Justin Longmuir was content with keeping his former captain on the pine. It was a huge risk – the Dockers were being slaughtered at stoppages, and Fyfe could have swung that momentum.
Can you imagine the furore had St Kilda’s stoppage dominance continued?
I am not sure what Longmuir had to say to his onballers at three-quarter time, but it clearly worked. He backed his current setup to turn things around, and that is exactly what they did. He comes out of it smelling like roses, even though there was the chance he could have been covered in manure for his decisions – the price of being a coach, I guess.
Fyfe lives to fight another day, whilst the Dockers now have the knowledge that even after three quarters of being down, their best mids can elevate their game when they need to.
WHEN DOES THE PATIENCE RUN OUT ON JYE AMISS?
Not yet.
Maybe soon, but not yet.
We headed into halftime of this game with Amiss completely beaten by Liam Stocker.
Nat Fyfe sat on the bench, and managed to accrue just as many touches of the footy as Amiss did in the first half. This is simply not good enough as we start to head toward the pointy end of the season.
Amiss went some way to redeeming himself in the second half, including a nice direct goal assist, but whilst other forwards are winning their own footy, he is looking like he is incapable at the moment. Hell, both he and Pat Voss were leaning on Treacy so heavily in this one, the poor bloke almost toppled over.
Amiss needs to start earning his keep at Freo over the next couple of weeks. He could be vital to a deep September run if he is able to find some form, but if a team carries passengers into September, it is usually a pretty short trip.
SOME QUICKIES
I liked the game of Neil Erasmus. He was clean with the footy, which is something that has been missing from his game at times in 2025. Truthfully, I haven’t been a huge fan of his, but with his teammates struggling around the stoppages, he gave them a little bit in the third quarter, right when they needed it.
Hugo Garcia’s rev up on the bench earlier in the year has seen him play some really good footy in patches. This game was one of those patches. With 24 touches and six of his ten clearances coming out of the middle, he was a dominant player in the guts.
I read a few messages asking why teams don’t play a defensive forward on Wanganeen-Milera, but it’s the same question you get with every team. The half-back rebounder is something teams live and die by, and given the way these players can take the kick in, then run on for the release handball, they’re pretty hard to keep under wraps. I mean, we could say the same for Jordan Clark, if the shoe is on the other foot, right? I would have liked to see Marcus Windhager moved onto him…
… had Max Hall not been so damaging.
Oscar McDonald had some nice moments as the most recent stand in for Alex Pearce. Did he offer more than Josh Draper would have? Right now, probably yes, but Draper will have to be relied upon more heavily, going forward. He will be a pillar of the defence, long term…even if that pillar seems a bit shaky at the moment.
Was Dan Butler the right man to sub out of the game?
The Saints weren’t getting a hell of a lot out of him, but they didn’t get a lot out of Jack Carroll, either.
Really warming to Karl Worner playing that small defensive role. He’s probably not going to be a stat-dominant player, but he is not afraid of a bit of contact, and doesn’t take a backwards step.
And that might just do me.
Next week, the Dockers hit the road and face the Swans at the sandbox known as the SCG. Sydney are three games out of the eight now, and would see this as a last-ditch hope of resurrecting their season. Freo need to kill off the hope early in the game.
As for the Saints, they host the Hawks at Mavel stadium. Call me crazy (many do), but I don’t mind the way the Saints matchup against the Hawks. It may not be as cut and dry as many believe.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
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