Are the Dockers good? Well, they’re certainly worth talking about.
Is this the best team that Fremantle have ever put on the park? It’s a question worth asking, as the Dockers gain more momentum and chatter in the media.
No, I don’t want to get all on the “Flagmantle” train and jinx them. The season has barely begun to walk yet, with many games to go and many sides to beat. Luck can play its role as much as ability when it comes to winning flags: Injuries, a lucky mark in the backline, an American playing a game no one thought him capable of; coming up against that one team you haven’t been able to beat; not needing to come up against that one team you haven’t been able to beat; hitting form at the right time or the wrong time – all these things have allowed or prevented premierships for various teams in the past.
So, I am not writing this to get anyone’s hopes up, because Freo have come close on a few occasions, they’ve put a few good sides on the park – they’ve had their legends and cult heroes. But I don’t think they’ve ever had the team they have this time around, and I want to explore what makes them different.
Firstly – The Forward Line.
Freo have never really had a functioning forward line. They’ve had some very good players – Pavlich (obviously), Tony Modra, Justin Longmuir was no slouch either. They’ve tried Chris Tarrant, Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb. They’ve usually had more success with their smaller to mid-sized players: Farmer, Ballantyne, Mayne being the notable inclusions.
What they’ve never been able to do is get a forward line that gets along: Farmer and Medhurst used to compete with each other as often as they did the opposition; Tarrant was moved down back because once he donned the purple, he completely forgot how to play as a forward; and McCarthy who was a mobile mid-sized player that, probably under the instruction of then-coach David Hale, tried to play like a resting ruckman by standing still and saying “kick it to me.”
Freo have had three players in their history be able to kick more than 50 goals in a game: Modra (71), Clive Waterhouse (53), and Pavlich (61, 63, 72, 67, and 62). Considering Pavlich played a lot of his games in the middle of the ground, that is impressive for one player, but it also demonstrates how dysfunctional their forward line has been. They’ve been too reliant on too few or too many to kick a winning score, and they were too reliant on Pavlich to be Mr. Fixit that they had to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Let’s move ahead to this team. Currently Fremantle have three tall forwards all capable of being a dominant key forward in their own right. While none have individually managed 50+ goals in a season, Treacy has kicked 42 and 45 in his previous two outings and Amiss managed 41 on debut. So far, this year, Treacy has kicked 12 and is on track for 50 – but they don’t need him to be the dominant goal kicker, because Amiss and Voss can pinch hit with their own.
Amiss has had two games of three or more goals, Treacy with two games of four or more. This means that Voss can take the third best defender and work his way into form in ways never allowed for Jesse Hogan, who had to come in and dominate as no one else was able reliable.
Throw Luke Jackson into the mix, and suddenly they have players who can not only dominate as forwards, but also be play the ‘Mr. Fixit” role that Pav used to, which we see with Jackson playing in the midfield, and Treacy going into defence or across the backline to provide an extra marking option.
Throughout Freo’s 2011-2015 seasons, their forward line was known for its tenacious tackling and high levels of pressure. Their smalls, lead by Ballantyne, would aggressively trap the ball inside 50 until someone found a way to score. It was Ross Lyon’s defensive brilliance that the modern Dockers haven’t quite captured fully, but are still capable of producing.
Isaiah udley, and Sam Switowski play that role but, unlike those Dockers, they’re also joined by Voss and Treacy, big men who command a big presence. The tackling prowess of Voss and Treacy means that they effectively have two extra defensive forwards, freeing up Dudley, in particular, to feast on the spoils and kick the kind of goals that little guys kick – with him now on track for a 40+ goal season, after eight in his first four games.
No, Fremantle of the past might have had Pavlich, but this team has Treacy who’s almost as good; Voss who is half as good as Treacy, and Amiss who is beginning to replicate Josh Kennedy – few possessions but can strong leading patterns that create space, and then a stilted run up to produce reasonably high accuracy in front of goal. Imagine a team with Kennedy and Pavlich? That’s the dream.
Stars all around the park
Having a healthy and deep list is fundamental to premiership success. It’s impossible to win a flag without most of your best players on the field for most of the time, and when they need replacing, knowing that someone can come in who can do the job almost as well.
Between 2008-2020 Freo were a team plagued by injuries. At one stage, they only managed to find 25 fit players to fill their squad, calling on rookies like Casey Sibisado to play a half because he hadn’t managed to build the fitness required to play out a full game (he was, subsequently delisted, probably for that reason). In 2015, they won 15 games on the trot and then had to limp to the finish line, requiring Fyfe to play with a literal broken leg and Luke McPharlin to receive regular jabs throughout the Preliminary Final. They say injuries are no excuse, but they can absolutely decimate a team, and having the worst injury record (averaging around five key players a week) for a decade doesn’t help.
That it took that long to replace their strength and conditioning guy is beyond me, however, they did and now they’ve got a list that is usually at or close to full strength each week.
Not only that, but they’ve been smart in their recruitment have have managed to build a deeper team than ever before. Many laughed at their inclusion of Mason Cox, but Darcy has become unreliable and Cox is still a good enough player to not only replace the once-best and fairest ruckman but he is playing well enough in the seconds to argue his way into the team in his own right, meaning Freo can develop their longer term ruckman quietly without him being poached.
How many Freo stars have you been able to name in the past? Pavlich, Fyfe, Bell, Maybe Clive? Modra? – but he was already one when he arrived. My point is, Freo have never been a team with many household names – and often they’re household names for all the wrong reasons. Let’s compare that to: Brayshaw, Serong, Treacy, Pearce, Jackson, Bolton, and Murphy Reid. I think the most I could compare them with are: Sanilands, McPharlin, Fyfe, Ballantyne, Barlow, Hill, and Mundy. But look at the players not getting a game: Jeremy Sharp, Nathan O’Driscoll, Brandon Walker, Mason Cox, Bailey Banfield – these aren’t great players, however where once they would persist with Jeremy Sharp and Nathan O’Driscoll, they can now develop them in the WAFL to play a different role because they spent the time turning Matthew Johnson into a very good winger.
Last year, Cooper Simpson looked like he would be a good half back flanker, but they still brought over Judd McVee to make sure that Simpson had to really earn his spot. These don’t sound like strong examples, because let’s face it, your depth players aren’t supposed to be your home-known names. But Darcy Tucker played 100 games before not being able to get one for the bottom side, North Melbourne; Alex Silvagni played in a grand final, alongside Clancee Pearce and Zac Dawson. And I have all the respect in the word for the toughness of Shaun McManus, but he is not playing 228 games if he was recruited in 2015 instead of 1995 – think Will Brodie as an example. And I like Taberner, but he was never supposed to be the replacement for Pav. He just kind of did probably better than he should have at it.
No, this Freo team is good because it’s healthy and it runs deep. There are multiple players playing for Peel Thunder that would never have been able to be dropped in the past.
Culture
Culture is one of those overused words in the footy world. Clubs not doing well are often criticised for their lack of it, and successful clubs are praised for the quality of it. It’s a bit over-used because it doesn’t contextualise a lot of what needs to be contextual, and we don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes.
But there are small things the club are now doing that I’ve never seen them do before. One, is that this group seem genuinely happy to play for the Dockers. It’s a little dig, but outside the mainstay players of the past, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team more wanting to be there. More players are asking to come to the club, fewer players are leaving – but it’s not only that. When they speak of the club, and of each other, it’s less cliched (although we still must have out cliches) and a lot more genuine.
After each win, the song is not only sung with gusto, but they’re singing the whole rendition – a traditon that was started by the girls, just to add to the inclusivity and connection they have with each other.
This was built on the back of targeting the right people. They tried to do that initially, famously so, letting opportunities for good players such as Lloyd go because he straight up said that he didn’t want to be there, but unfortunately, they didn’t then have the size or money to pay players that did want to be there. Then they went through a long patch of just trying to get any big name to come across and lure them with money. Tarrant, Anthony, Croad, Lobb, Hogan etc. without ever thinking about whether they were the right fit off the field.
Recently, they’ve been letting a lot of players walk out and not been afraid to move players on. Of Cerra, I was reliably told he was more interested in reading his stats than he was getting around his team mates after a game; Lobb simply didn’t want to be there; Hogan never clicked; Henry was chasing coin he hadn’t earned yet; and Acres gave them one good season so asked for a superstar sized contract.
Instead, they’ve persisted with developing, keeping or buying in players who want to be there, who “want to be part of history.” Which is a huge driving force for a lot of the crew. Some want to “play in front of 80,000” and for a bigger historical club, some want money, some more opportunity – I think all three are good motivators and reasons for choosing a club, once the choice is available. But many Dockers are speaking about ‘being in the history books” as the first premiership player and I think that brings with it a bit of extra effort.
Winning the close ones – and the ones they need to.
In the 2024 season, Freo started strongly then suffered shock losses to Cartlon and West Coast at home. Throughout that season, they would go on to lose seven games by fewer than two goals, including a draw to Collingwood and many against teams they were expected to beat.
Last year, they reduced that total to four losses and started to win more of those closer games. While I am not saying they’re now immune to losing close games, this year their only lose loss so far was against Geelong in a game they weren’t expected to win but put themselves in a position to win. They’ve since had close wins against Adelaide and Collingwood, both showing improvements on previous years: Adelaide’s because again they were looking like giving up a strong position, which they would have in the past; and Collingwood’s because they were never really in that game, but they never allowed themselves to be beaten. They just kept finding a way.
Good teams win games, but better teams know how to win games they shouldn’t. Furthermore, they’ve had a tendency to lose games they should win – they went into both the Adelaide and Collingwood games as favourite and walked out with 4 points. It’s a small thing, but it’s not a Dockery thing.
Are Freo good again?
Sitting second on the ladder after five games, and with the Derby next up, Freo has the opportunity to sit 5-1 to start the season. They’re giving themselves every chance to go on with it this year.
it is time for the Dockers to start being less Dockery, and start making history.
Yes, they’re good again. Now, they just have to keep proving it.
IF you enjoyed this article, shout me a coffee. I do these for the love of the game, but I can do more of them if I’m full of caffeine.
