Fremantle seemed a team on the rise coming into the season, but few would’ve expected them to feature in the second week of finals and fall narrowly short of the top four.
The Dockers have a list brimming with young talent of the future, led by Andrew Brayshaw, who broke out as the AFLPA MVP.
Caleb Serong continued his rise as a star midfielder of the competition, key forward Jye Amiss showed a glimpse of his talent in a big final, Brandon Walker and Hayden Young continue to grow in defence, Jordan Clark stepped straight into the best 22, Heath Chapman and Nathan O’Driscoll will be 200 gamers and we have barely seen Neil Erasmus and Matt Johnson.
On the flip side, it looms as an off-season of change with numerous players on the way out, including club great David Mundy, and Melbourne ruckman Luke Jackson likely on the way in.
The season in a sentence
The Dockers proved their game style under Justin Longmuir is a winner and they have one of the more desirable young lists in the AFL.
The Highlight
Winning a final from 41 points down in front of 60,000 of your adoring fans is a pretty nice highlight. Especially when it doubles as David Mundy’s final home game.
Fremantle’s roaring comeback Elimination Final win over the Bulldogs capped off an incredible season with the vindication of a finals victory.
The fact that Amiss bobbed up with two goals and six marks, Brayshaw and Serong combined for 65 touches and two goals, Young had 28 and 11 marks – the club’s future is in good hands.
The Lowlight
It’s hard to really pinpoint a true lowlight for Fremantle this season. The Semi Final loss to Collingwood was obviously disappointing, but felt like a natural end to the season.
Their Round 9 loss to Gold Coast by 36 points and 46-point home loss to Melbourne in Round 20 sting when you consider how narrowly they missed out on top four finish by.
Overall, captain Nathan Fyfe never truly getting a clean run at it this season feels like the lowlight from an indvidual sense.
Fyfe only managed seven games, dealing with constant issues, including a setback that made him unavailable for finals.
Off-season moves to make
Geez, where do we start?
Rory Lobb, Griffin Logue and Blake Acres have all requested trades, Lloyd Meek and Darcy Tucker appear to be on the way out, while Liam Henry will stay.
These changes complicate things for a team on the rise. Lobb was clearly the club’s best forward this year, Logue has been a handy versatile piece at either end of the ground and Acres was a borderline All-Australian wingman before his mid-season injury. Meek and Tucker are also handy depth.
The Dockers will play hard ball on Lobb, but should ultimately stack as much draft capital as they can before going after Melbourne’s Luke Jackson.
From there, they will need to replenish their depth and should look to see who they can pluck from the fringes. They have been linked with Collingwood’s Ollie Henry and Gold Coast’s Jeremy Sharp.
On the chopping block
David Mundy has retired (or was retired), Luke Valente retired early and a number of players are on the trade table.
The Dockers likely will have a number of list changes without needing to delist anyone, though Connor Blakely, Joel Western and Mitch Crowden remain out of contract.
Their futures will likely depend on how they navigate the trade period and how many list spots the club needs.
B&F top 3
- Andrew Brayshaw
- Caleb Serong
- Brennan Cox
Andrew Brayshaw took home the AFLPA MVP and should comfortably take home Fremantle’s best and fairest in his breakout season.
Fellow midfield star Caleb Serong continues to elevate his game and despite missing two games, should still poll prolifically in the B&F.
Brennan Cox meanwhile had an outstanding season for Fremantle in defence and was incredibly consistent as an intercept marker.
Season grade: 8/10