BARRETT: Another 'vanilla' effort leaves Freo on the edge of failure

The Dockers have the talent to beat the Dogs and make finals, but how much do they really want it, asks Damian Barrett

Josh Treacy and Luke Ryan after Fremantle's loss to Brisbane in round 23, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

FREMANTLE'S first match of 2025 was a by-design "vanilla" performance in an exhibition match against the Indigenous All-Stars.

Its most recent match was an embarrassingly unintended "vanilla" showing in a highly pressurised round 23 game against the reigning AFL premiers.

There may have been plenty to like about the Dockers' football in between those efforts, but their failure to commit to an unconditional ferocious approach to all contests has again left them on the precipice of another failed season.

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Having lost the last four matches of 2024 to crash from a top four ladder position to out of the top eight, the Dockers don't deserve any slack should 2025 also conclude with finals-ruining consecutive losses.

The mauling by Brisbane at Optus Stadium in round 23 against a badly depleted Brisbane Lions unwound so much belief, hope and positivity, and left coach Justin Longmuir with his greatest home-and-away challenge of his six seasons in charge: beat a red-hot Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Sunday to qualify for the 2025 finals.

For that to happen, Longmuir will need to remove all vanilla thoughts and practices. The negative ones he attempted to utilise against the Lions were exposed immediately. Brisbane seized on that licence to control proceedings, and pulled the Dockers apart with a keepings-off game-style which was never properly challenged, strategically or physically.

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Against the Bulldogs, Longmuir will need to embrace an attacking approach and demand of his players that they attack, too. The conservatism that too often comes to the fore under his watch has ultimately again proven suffocating.

The Dockers boast a list that should be making finals, even when the long-running soft tissue injuries to gun playmaker Hayden Young are factored in. With Luke Jackson, Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw, Josh Treacy, Jordan Clark, Alex Pearce, Shai Bolton, Murphy Reid, Luke Ryan and Sean Darcy as the headline core of this team, there is more than enough high-end talent to regularly be reaching finals.

In the days leading into Sunday's match against the Bulldogs, Longmuir needs to aggressively challenge Jackson and Darcy, demand that they bring down Tim English. He needs to devise a plan for Pearce, Ryan and Brennan Cox to shut off Sam Darcy and Aaron Naughton. He may consider assigning Jaeger O'Meara the Marcus Bontempelli responsibilities, although good luck with all planning on that front.

Serong and Brayshaw need to be empowered to not merely stop Ed Richards, Tom Liberatore and Bontempelli, but to create fear in the Bulldogs by providing their own forwards Treacy, Jye Amiss and Patrick Voss with goal-scoring opportunities.

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Last February, the Dockers board and administration announced a "variation" of Longmuir's "employment terms" where he would "transition to an ongoing employment agreement". Club CEO Simon Garlick said: "Following a number of discussions with Justin, it was clear that those expectations we set ourselves is what drives our ambitions and standards, not the length of a contract."

Fremantle had recovered from a three-quarter time deficit in five of the six of the six matches before the Lions loss. They kicked the last four goals of the game to win against Collingwood in round 19, came from behind against Hawthorn the week prior. Before the debacle against the Lions, they had won 11 of 12 matches. There had been a lot to like, but losses to Melbourne in round six, St Kilda two rounds later, and the abysmal effort of round 23 have left them badly exposed in this tight battle for the top eight.

Justin Longmuir speaks to his players during Fremantle's loss to Brisbane in round 23, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

While the Dockers are adamant Longmuir will coach into 2026 regardless of 2025 outcome, a bad loss to the Bulldogs should be cause for deep football department review.

An elimination final win in 2022 against the Bulldogs remains the Longmuir coaching highpoint, and now the final home-and-away assignment of the 2025 season against the same team looms as equally important to his career.

There will be more than enough talent in the Dockers' 23 on Sunday to beat the Bulldogs. There can be no excuses, no fear, no vanilla. Win and you're in. Let's see if they truly want it.

X: @barrettdamian

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