King: You could delist some Dockers after finals disaster

It was simply “appalling”, according to Gerard Whateley who said he had never seen a side play worse in a home final than Fremantle did in their shock 32-point loss to Hawthorn on Thursday.

The minor premiers, who have been dominant all season, froze under pressure at Optus Stadium where the Hawks were ruthless in their10.12 (72) to 5.10 (40) dismantling of Freo.

The result secures Sam Mitchell’s side a home prelim final at the MCG in a fortnight while Freo will play host to Geelong or Carlton as they look to avoid a shock straight sets exit.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a home team play worse in a final than tonight,” Whateley said on SEN’s call of the game. “From start to finish, that was appalling.

“It’s an examination of their psyche, do you blokes have it in you or not. Are you really a good team?”

Justin Longmuir was almost lost for words when asked what went went wrong for his side who had gone into the game as out and out favourites.

It seemed the pressure and turnovers from the Hawks killed his side and brought an end to their 12-0 win record on home turf.

“Lowest score, first loss, worst forward line,” Adam Sipson said on AFL Nation. “Everything is the worst tonight.

"A lot of it had to do with Hawthorn and what they brought, but there’s some self-inflicted scars that were created today which they will carry until they win a final here which hopefully is next week for them.”

SO BAD THEY COULD BE DELISTED

For David King, the performance from Freo was so poor that a deep dive review of individual output would expose three or four players of note to be delisted.

"Hawthorn made Freo so jittery behind the ball and you look at them and ask who is the one to function under this pressure? The answer was none of them.

"Freo weren’t bullied they were just timid. They didn’t fight the fight. It’s going to make me go back and have a look at which ones failed last year, some of these players 0-2 when it comes to finals?

"They looked apprehensive with the football every time they had it Freo, and that’s a nice way of saying it. They looked panicked. Some of them jumped out the boat.

"If you want to do a deep dive with some review vision of this game you could delist three or four players off last night, I’m talking high quality names, guys that have had pretty good seasons.

"They threw the white flag; there wasn’t a lot of resistance.

"They will not be set up again like this. It was never going to be any better than this, what a way to cock it up."