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Why has everyone forgotten about the Dockers?

4th September, 2014
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4th September, 2014
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So according to most pundits, Buddy Franklin is the new Peter Hudson, Kurt Tippett is pretty much Tony Lockett, Sydney is a runaway grand final favourite, and Hawthorn or Geelong might jag one only if things go totally right for them.

As for the teams outside the top four, well, there are a few colourful stories among them, but ultimately history says they’re making up the numbers.

MORE AFL FINALS:
>> Complete guide to week 1
>> Roar Expert tips and predictions
>> Sydney Swans vs Fremantle Dockers preview
>>Hawthorn Hawks vs Geelong Cats HIGHLIGHTS
>> Port Adelaide Power vs Richmond Tigers preview
>> North Melbourne Kangaroos vs Essendon Bombers preview

That’s the pre-finals narrative. Among it not even a faint whisper of the double-chanced men in purple who find themselves saddling up for another whack at it.

I can’t understand why.

Here’s a team who fell short by just three goals against the soon-to-be marauding Swans way back in Round 5, a game that also marked the starting point of Fremantle’s softest stretch of 2014 form.

The Cats were pummelled by Freo at Patersons when the Dockers eventually emerged from that early season funk, and Geelong only took revenge in the return bout at Fort Simonds because of a slightly wayward Mundy kick and some seriously tardy officialdom.

The Hawks felt the Dockers’ wrath just one week later, a win that rendered the Hawks’ mighty triumph in the much awaited grand final replay at the start of the year pretty much meaningless. At the right end of the season the Dockers were tougher, harder, hungrier and just plain better. In my view significantly so.

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The point of such retrospection?

Going on plain results against fellow contenders, Fremantle are up to their necks in it. They deserve a little more respect.

I had the good fortune of watching Freo up close during the course of my ABC boundary commentary duties a few weeks back.

They’d made the long haul trip to Brisbane to confront a rejuvenated Lions outfit who were fresh off effectively and dramatically ending Collingwood’s season the week prior.

Lions fans went in vaguely hopeful of at best an unlikely triumph against a sore and weary opponent, or at worst a competitive, fighting loss.

But no. Freo were just Freo. An even spread of contributors, stronger at the disputed ball, stronger in the air, relentless, precise. In a blink the game was gone. The latter stages were academic.

Plenty of things opened my eyes to the Dockers that day.

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First and foremost was their size. The Dockers are an enormous team. Of course any side that counts Aaron Sandilands among its number will take some toppling in the average height stakes, but it’s more the physical bulk on display that stands out.

Ball gatherers like Mundy and Mayne are built like rugby flankers. They are taller than you expect, thick through the hips and legs, and powerful in the chest and arms. Their kind is tough to counter.

Then there’s Freo’s multitude of on-field positional winners. Yes, the opponent was Brisbane when I was having a close gander, but the example they set that day is readily transposable to more fancied foes.

I’ve already mentioned Mundy and Mayne, both rarely quelled. Michael Walters is an out and out star. Ballantyne has assumed the mantle of the game’s best small forward. Say what you will about Ryan Crowley and the modern relevance of taggers but fact remains he is rarely beaten.

There’s outside line breakers Stephen Hill and Danyle Pearce. Throw in Nate Fyfe and – of course – Matthew Pavlich and it’s a pretty heady mix of elite talent.

But Fremantle also enjoys preponderance of unheralded athleticism and skill in an undervalued middle tier. The likes of Zac Clarke, Lachie Neale, Tendai Mzungu, Paul Duffield, Cameron Sutcliffe go relatively unnoticed, at least in the footballing east. These blokes are the bread and butter of a Ross Lyon-coached side.

They do as they’re told and they never give up contesting. Zac Dawson has his critics. I’m not really sure why. While Josh Gibson is roundly praised for competing pretty much only with a fist, Dawson, arguably a more athletic and physically adaptable defensive option, is roundly slandered. Go figure.

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Add to all of this the one thing Lyon didn’t enjoy while getting the Saints so close – genuine depth. Garrick Ibbotson, Alex Silvagni, Matt Taberner, Matt de Boer and Lee Spurr.

All can play, but unlike the ‘drone’ players at St Kilda in 2009 and 2010, all can play significantly more than telling part. Taberner in particular has been a quiet revelation.

It’s interesting to note that with the exception of hitouts (read: Sandilands) there are very few categories in which the Dockers are clearly statistically relevant. Freo lurk around the middle of the ladder for most on-field measurables. It speaks loudly of consistency of effort and end-to-end evenness.

It also speaks of work rate.

Few, if any teams, work harder without the ball than Fremantle. They chase, harass, annoy, shepherd, spoil and sprint for space. They do all these things all day, often back-to-back.

If you want the perfect illustration of Freo’s work ethic, take a look at Chris Mayne’s goal-saving tackle, run to space, body on the line mark and goal to pretty much ice last week’s game against Port Adelaide.

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Literally every time a Docker passes through the interchange gates for a stint on the pine, they are doubled over and struggling to breathe. The team’s on-field expectation is total exertion.

On the day I saw them at the Gabba, no Lion was given an inch. Any offensive hesitation was pounced upon the kind of fervour you might expect from a starving cheetah when it spots a zebra with a limp. For some this kind of frenzied pressure is stiflingly dull. I find it intoxicating.

That the Dockers have only had one real ‘sickie’ – when they were belted by St Kilda at Docklands in one of the upsets of the year – is all the more impressive. The stoic discipline among this playing group really is something to behold.

Throw all this together and it’s easy to make a pretty compelling case for Fremantle in 2014, and that optimism should extend to Saturday’s qualifying final in Sydney.

The average margin between these sides over the course of their last five encounters is a tick more than two goals. Two wins apiece and a draw. Talk as much as you like about star power, clearance numbers, tackles and contested possession counts, fact is that when these sides meet two heavy machines collide.

It’ll be the same on Saturday – a decisive ten-minute burst, a kick or two here and there. But why so many are so willing to simply ink in the result on the Swans side of the ledger beggars belief.

Rewrite the narrative, I say. Fremantle are not to be trifled with.

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