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Fremantle must not be seduced into a rebuild off this, their annus horribilus. They must re-group and press onward and upward.
The Dockers have seemingly been connected to everyone coming out of contract either this year or next, and doubly so if the player in question is from Western Australia. If you’re out-of-contract at the end of this season, and haven’t seen your name in the paper as a possible target, your manager isn’t doing his job.
Cam McCarthy, still listed at GWS, has been the most prominent name, and will have to be traded for given he is contracted to the Giants until the end of 2017. Brad Hill from Hawthorn is the latest, with a desire to return home and play with his brother Stephen.
This is good news for Freo, and they need to make these deals happen. This is the time to go forward, not back as some pundits would implore them. What they have to give up to land these players will be one of the stories of the off-season.
Obviously things haven’t panned out for the Dockers this season, but they did finish in the top four the previous three years. If they can create a better list immediately, they need to trust Ross Lyon to be able to take them back to the top in quick time.
Nat Fyfe, the reigning Brownlow medallist and the nominal best player in the game, will be 25 at the start of next season. A rebuild can’t be entertained while he’s in his prime years, or he won’t finish his career in purple. If he wants out, the re-build then has no figure-head, and no player to build the team around.
Michael Walters is having his best season covering a lot of ground, should be in the All-Australian frame, and is right in the prime of his career. Stephen Hill is doing his best in a trying year, with a team and game style unsuited to maximising his talents. Fremantle can’t waste the career of two of their most devastating talents on a rebuild.
Aaron Sandilands and Michael Johnson have had outstanding but injury-riddled careers, and have been carefully managed out of this season from an early stage. Their initial injuries were no doubt authentic, and they could then be set for an assault on 2017. Next year will be their last hurrah.
David Mundy has had some injury concerns, and has struggled for continuity throughout the year, never finding his best form. He turned 31 last week, and so will be 32 when next years’ finals come around. The Dockers should try and be there while he can still thrive.
Danyle Pearce and Hayden Ballantye still have something to offer, through middle-back and up forward respectively, but for perhaps only a year or two longer. There are enough other solid citizens to form an older base, although only Michael Barlow as a tagger and Garrick Ibbotson if he can find his confidence again should be in the best 22.
These older players (Sandilands, Johnson, Mundy, Pearce, Ballantyne, Barlow and Ibbotson) would only make up a third of the team, which is a good spread of experience.
Outside of them, there is plenty of talent either in their prime or young players capable of having an impact.
Fyfe, Walters and Stephen Hill have already been mentioned, as have McCarthy and Brad Hill, if they can be brought in. Add in the rare match-winning talent of Harley Bennell, and you have a host of players that can shape a game in the forward half of the ground, which has long been Fremantle’s weakness.
Matt Taberner has quietly put together a consistent season in trying times, given the type of ball movement he has been playing in front of, and is ranked higher than Jack Riewoldt, Josh Kennedy, Charlie Dixon, Jesse Hogan, and Josh Bruce in contested marks per game. Next year might be his launching pad as he crosses that 50-game barrier, which is when Riewoldt and Kennedy really came into their own.
Shane Yarran showed enough in one match to suggest that he might be a handy foil too, with his athletic gifts. Lachie Weller has been a find in the forward half too. All of a sudden, there’s an eclectic mix of players to make things happen up forward, and someone like Chris Mayne can be put out to pasture.
Lachie Neale has become the premier ball-winner in the competition, carrying the load in the Docker midfield, and will still get better. Connor Blakely has been superb as a 20 year old and Darcy Tucker has shown enough glimpses, and will develop. Ed Langdon played the best game of his short career on the weekend.
Walters and Bennell will obviously run through the middle as well, and Fremantle then have one of the most exciting midfields in the competition. No more Clancee Pearce, Nick Suban, Tendai Mzungu.
Michael Johnson is a huge key down back, but Alex Pearce looks a future All-Australian, and Sam Collins has impressed since coming into the side. Goodbye Zac Dawson.
Stick with Hayden Crozier down back, where he has put his creativity to good use. Tommy Sheridan has more to give, and would be a bigger weapon in a free-running side.
2016 has been one of the most even seasons in memory. Hawthorn aren’t the dominant force they have been, and second to seventh on the ladder are separated only by percentage, all sitting on 12 wins.
It has been a poor season to have a down year for a perennial contender, but there is nothing to suggest that 2017 won’t throw up more of the same among those finalists. It could well be anyone’s ball game once more.
A Fremantle that welcomes back their guns, welcomes in some quality, and adds another pre-season of development into the exciting younger types, could very well be ready to contend again. Ross Lyon is too smart a coach not to evolve and learn from what went wrong this year.
The Dockers have already gone back. Next year, they must go forward.