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Rebuilding the team’s identity is the only way forward for Fremantle after a shocking start to the season.
After such a promising return to finals footy in 2022, the Dockers have fallen off considerably to commence this season and are faced with a tough, extended run leaving all hopes of returning to September footy appear in the dust.
Even the club’s biggest strength has turned into arguably its biggest weakness.
Fremantle owned the best defence in the league last season, restricting the opposition to scoring 38.4 percent of the time they entered the forward 50, ranked first; while also conceding just 67.54 points per game, ranked second.
Through seven rounds in 2023, Fremantle’s opponents are scoring 46.14 per cent of the time they enter their attacking arc, which makes them the fifth-leakiest team in the league. Only three teams have conceded more points this season, with the Dockers conceding 91.57 points per game.
Fox Footy’s David King believes that there are a host of issues at the Dockers, but its lack of identity is the most important one to address.
“They’ve got to gather an identity, who are they going to be?” he told The Roar.
“What’s going to be their point of difference when they stand toe-to-toe with an opponent, where do they dominate the game?
“I look at Melbourne and you see that they’re tough in the midfield, you’re going to have a tough day in contested possessions. I look at Collingwood and they outnumber, and they wave run. The Adelaide Crows get the ball to the edges and then the wave run explodes.
“They’re all good teams for a specific reason.”
Heading into 2023, many had concerns for the Dockers offensively, having lost Rory Lobb, their leading goalkicker, and not replacing his or the role Griffin Logue played in attack.
Tactically, it appeared Justin Longmuir would maximise the use of the talented core of small forwards with elite workrate to create space in attacking 50, yet despite the best efforts of Lachie Schulz, Sam Switkowski, Michael Frederick and Michael Walters, the Dockers remain without many concerns offensively.
Walters and Schulz have combined for 22 goals and 12 goal assists, contributing heavily to the 78 total goals the team has scored, yet they should be complementary pieces, rather than the main scoreboard impactors.
Second-year key forward Jye Amiss has performed valiantly as the focal point with eight goals in six games, but clearly, the Dockers cannot rely on such an inexperienced player and expect to be successful. He has eight goals in six games, averaging less than seven disposals and purely offering positive output on the lead.
“Amiss needs help down there, there’s no doubt about that,” King said.
Jye Amiss of the Dockers. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“You know, they’re doing the right thing and giving him an opportunity, but he’s not going to get carte blanche – ‘hey, you’re not going to get a game every week because of your birth certificate, you still have to achieve certain markers’,” King said.
So far this season, the Dockers have opted for a 76/24 split for Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson in the ruck. Darcy’s had a dominant season in getting his hands on the ball at stoppages, rated elite for hitouts won, but has a hitout-to-advantage rate of 27 percent, compared to Jackson’s 36 per cent.
Perhaps if Amiss is the only traditional key forward selected, using Darcy forward more would be the smarter, more protective move.
The 24-year-old has been rated as elite for contested marks and above average for marks inside 50 and shots at goal for ruckmen over the past three seasons.
King didn’t mind the notion of the Dockers’ number one ruck spending more time forward, although the issues are more deep rooted according to him.
“I like when Darcy’s down there. I think that he offers something quite unique, he never gets outmarked at worst, so you know you’re going to get crumbing opportunities and then they’ve just got to be better when the ball hits the deck,” said King.
“They’ve been really poor when the ball’s been on the ground [though] this year, so it’s (the offence) not necessarily just a big man or just a small man issue, they’ve got issues everywhere.”
Against Brisbane in Round 7, the Dockers opted to become more handball-happy, finishing with more handballs than kicks for the first time since Longmuir took over in 2020.
Justin Longmuir. (Photo by Jono Searle/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
They made their intentions clear within the first minute of the game, with the first scoring passage coming from short, sharp diagonal handballs that lead to Hayden Young running through the centre, finishing with a behind.
Despite the struggles against the Lions, the signs of making changes on the run is a positive for both the Dockers and Longmuir, who need to be adaptable and fluid as a tough season continues.
King said that there were positives to take from it, despite it not working consistently.
“Even the plays that broke down, they still had options there turning up, ready to inject themselves into the play and they just weren’t utilised,” he said.
According to King, the difficulty in making changes on the run with an inexperienced group cannot be underestimated.
“The other thing to look at is, last week, they had five players with over 100 games experience and (I think) the opposition had 15, so they’re seriously inexperienced.
“And then, they’re learning the game whilst changing the mechanics of their game, which is a difficult thing to achieve, but they’re learning about whether [Matt] Johnson’s taking them somewhere, where [Neil] Erasmus is at, is Sam Sturt going to be a bonafide half-forward flanker, O’Driscoll’s only 20 years of age.”
One definitive positive to emerge from the Brisbane game was Hayden Young, who finished with a career-high 33 disposals as the main weapon out of defence.
King speculated about the future position of Young and where he could best be used.
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“We sort of threw this around a little bit in game, whether they look at maybe throwing Hayden Young into the middle, could he be like Jordan Dawson, be that big body in there because right now, their midfield is just going and I guess I’m looking for a spark,” King explained.
“If you look at their last four weeks, they’re -13 points in terms of score differential from clearance. Some of that could be because they’re not getting the reward in their forward end, but in the end you have to make change. If Brayshaw is playing injured, he shouldn’t be playing prime midfield minutes, give somebody else that opportunity and squeeze him onto a flank for a little while.”
The Dockers face the most difficult fixture of any team in the competition, with Stats Insider’s fixture models rating it twice as hard as the next club, so the likelihood of a Docker resurgence seems unlikely.
Yet, given this team has been arguably the most inexperienced on the park so far this season, there is still an opportunity for the club to come out of 2023 with positives on hand.
Caleb Serong’s stellar start to the season has him on track for All-Australian honours, averaging 32 disposals, seven clearances and five tackles per game, while getting meaningful games into younger players will improve the club’s depth going forward.
With issues across all lines, it’s ultimately finding a spark and figuring out what the Dockers stand for which will hold them in good stead heading into the future.
“What is Fremantle’s prime mode or method of scoring against the best teams? That’s what I think is to be gained in terms of intelligence over the next three to four months. Who are they? What do they want to be? How do you make it look like that on game day?”
The Dockers have been the league’s most disappointing team in the opening stanza of 2023, but with youth on their side and a coach seemingly willing to trial new things, there’s an opportunity for positivity to emerge from the season.
Finding their identity is vital to future successes and the Dockers have to make sure that’s their priority.
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