The Fremantle Dockers started the season as one of the favourites for the premiership.
Last year’s minor premiers, they were narrowly beaten in a tough preliminary final against the Hawks who destroyed West Coast the next week to be premiers. The Dockers had an ageing list but one expected to still contend for another year or two.
Fast forward just five rounds and the Dockers are rock bottom. The Dockers are missing Luke McPharlin’s dependability in the back six that has been the best for so long.
He held the back six together and was still beating the best key forwards in his final years. Michael Johnson has slowed down this year at the age of 31, and Zac Dawson and young Alex Pearce haven’t been able to pick up the slack.
With David Mundy being injured for most part of the season so far, Nat Fyfe seemingly missing the year and a bunch of old guys like Clancee Pearce, Matthew Pavlich, Tendai Mzungu, Danyle Pearce, Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Barlow seemingly nearing the end of their footy, the Dockers need to rebuild.
The question is can Ross Lyon build a list? He took over a St. Kilda team with young stars like Nick Reiwoldt, Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo, Brendon Goddard, Lenny Hayes, Stephen Milne, Sam Fisher, Jason Gram, Sean Dempster and Ben McEvoy.
It’s hard to argue that the list he inherited wasn’t pushing it’s way too a top four spot and possibly grand finals without him. When He left the Saints, he left them in all sorts of trouble.
They went down the ladder rapidly because there weren’t enough young players that could come into the team and pick up from where the older champions left.
And the same thing has happened at Fremantle. Alex Silvagni has spent six years at Freo and only managed 48 games. The Dockers’ ten youngest players combined have only managed 38 games between them.
We know Lyon can coach, but can he rebuild a list from scratch?
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