By Justin Chadwick
Draft hits, trade steals and a gun coach – welcome to Fremantle’s simple recipe for what they hope will lead to AFL premiership success.
The opening of Fremantle’s flag window has by no means been an overnight feat, with the Dockers not tasting finals action since falling off the cliff at the end of 2015.
The Dockers celebrate as they walk from the field after victory during the round 23 match against the Greater Western Sydney Giants.Credit:AFL Photos
During the six years in the wilderness, Fremantle turned to the tried and tested formula of hitting the draft hard.
The result? The Dockers now boast one of the league’s most talented young squads, made largely from top-notch pedigree to go with some bargain basement steals.
Remarkably, Fremantle currently possess 13 first-round draft picks on their list.
Four of those – Blake Acres, James Aish, Will Brodie and Jordan Clark – were originally selected by rival clubs before being traded to Fremantle for a fraction of the price.
Brodie, who rivals Geelong’s Tyson Stengle for recruit-of-the-season honours, was effectively a salary cap dump by Gold Coast.
Fremantle’s dealings to get him almost matches their brilliance in trading out Lachie Weller to Gold Coast at the end of 2017 in exchange for pick No.2 – which they in turn used to snare Brownlow Medal fancy Andrew Brayshaw.
Clark struggled for game time at Geelong, and Fremantle jumped at the chance to snare him for a second and third-round pick.
Acres was effectively the “steak knives” part of the deal that saw Bradley Hill traded to St Kilda at the end of 2019, while Aish was an even cheaper get from Collingwood.
The scary thing for the rest of the competition is that four of Fremantle’s current 13 first-rounders – Liam Henry, Neil Erasmus, Jye Amiss and Sam Sturt – aren’t regulars in the side yet but are expected to be future guns.
Amiss is even being touted as the next Matthew Pavlich.
Fremantle have nailed almost all of their first-round selections over the past few years.
Brayshaw and Caleb Serong are already stars of the competition.
Hayden Young and Heath Chapman are largely unheralded outside of WA, but they have already become match-winners with their explosive rebound abilities.
There was no room for Griffin Logue in defence, so he has simply been remodelled into an important cog up forward.
Fremantle have also been astute at sniffing out late-pick bargains.
Michael Walters, Luke Ryan, Michael Frederick and Lachie Schultz were all fourth-round selections, while the unheralded Sam Switkowski was a fifth rounder.
Defender Brandon Walker was part of the club’s Next Generation Academy and was taken at pick No.50 in 2020, while Matt Taberner was a rookie selection.
That equates to almost a third of Fremantle’s best 22 coming from the ‘dregs’ of the draft.
Ruckman Sean Darcy was a steal at pick No.38 in 2016, and the Dockers have done well to halt Geelong from luring him home.
“I think we’ve worked really hard to get our list in the position it has been,” captain Nat Fyfe says.
“Ideally you want that to turn into four or five years of sustained finals footy which gives us the best chance of winning one or multiple premierships.
“That’s down the track, that’s the future, that’s the longer strategic focus. For now, we have to look forward to playing next weekend (against the Western Bulldogs) in our first final.”
Not all of Fremantle’s decisions were a hit of course, with the move to trade in Jesse Hogan despite his injury concerns and off-field problems proving to be a major bust.
But the successes have by far outweighed the failures, with even the doomed Hogan trade netting a silver lining in the form of Rory Lobb.
The fact David Mundy has retained his standing as one of the AFL’s elite players at the age of 37 has helped offset Fyfe’s form and fitness struggles this year.
The rebuild has been slow, but steady.
The lengthy nature of it cost Ross Lyon his job at the end of 2019.
But the arrival of Justin Longmuir sparked a new era of hope.
Longmuir served a 10-year apprenticeship at Fremantle, West Coast, and Collingwood before landing the senior role at the Dockers.
He guided the club to seven wins in 2020 and 10 wins last year despite the border dramas caused by COVID-19.
Fremantle exploded onto centre stage this year with a series of breathtaking wins.
Beating Geelong at the Cattery and Melbourne at the MCG announced Fremantle as a major player, and only Carlton’s late choke against Collingwood in the final round cost the Dockers a top-four berth.
Out of Fremantle’s best 22, only Fyfe, Mundy, Walters, Lobb, Aish and Taberner have finals experience, and it remains to be seen how the club’s young guns handle the elimination final against the Bulldogs.
“As a young group you’ve got to start somewhere,” Longmuir says.
“We’ll do our best to prepare our players for what finals footy looks like.
“Come Saturday night, there’ll be no excuses.”
AAP
