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The right of replay: Why Duff won't rule out the Dockers
Mark Duffield • August 19th, 2025 9:30 pm
So it comes to this for Fremantle fans. Beat the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium next Sunday and you play finals. Lose and – barring a couple of monumental upsets – you will have snatched September mothballs from the jaws of finals for the second year in a row.
A couple of observations about Friday night against Brisbane – It was a very disappointing effort from Justin Longmuir’s team given the magnitude of the game. The Dockers were timid, indecisive and even looked lethargic – which I suspect was more the result of tension and nerves than apathy.
But what I would say – before the doom and gloom bandwagon gains any more steam – is that this is the team that had won 11 of its last 12. This is the team that has won 15 games this season. If nothing else – that earns Longmuir and his boys the right of replay before we wrote them off as finals pretenders.
That said, the Dockers can’t afford to get stage fright again like they did on Friday night against the Lions.
Win, lose or draw on Sunday – they need to turn up, compete and fight for this.
They looked completely off against the Lions. Broadly speaking for a team to do itself justice against a strong opponent you need your great players to be great, your good players to be good and your adequate players to be adequate.
It would not be harsh to say that none of these things happened against the Lions. The Dockers best were Jordan Clark, Caleb Serong and Josh Treacy but none of them were great. Serong got closed down after half time, Clark wasn’t able to generate much in the way of momentum off half back – he just looked more at ease in the environment than many of his teammates. Treacy looked like the Dockers' most likely dominant target in attack but he kicked two and flat out butchered two chances early in the game when the Dockers were on the way to a 1.10 scoreline when better finishing might have brought them some extra time to get a toehold in the game and gain some composure.
The fall short of expectation continued all the way down the food chain to Jye Amiss whose recent form struggles continued with just the three disposals for one shot on goal in a forward line starved of good looks while Nathan O’Driscoll had just five disposals in a midfield role.
The Lions are good – they probably have the best list in this competition but they are not as good as Fremantle made them look on Friday night. And Fremantle are a lot better than how they looked on Friday night. Remember – this team has beaten Gold Coast, GWS and Collingwood on the road this year. Remember this team’s 11 wins in 12 games came with Hayden Young – probably their best player – playing just five of the 48 quarters in that successful stretch.
Surely, Young is a welcome inclusion to the team this Sunday as the Dockers go all chips in trying to make finals.
I heard both Collingwood’s Craig McRae and Lions coach Chris Fagan say after recent losses – judge us on our response - and that is the message Longmuir needs to peddle this week. This was a performance that absolutely requires a response but Freo gets the chance to give one and the reward if they get it right is a berth in the 2025 finals series.
