Fremantle Football Club (AFL Women's)

The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fremantle, a stronghold of Australian rules football in Western Australia. The Dockers were the second team from the state to be admitted to the competition, following the West Coast Eagles in 1987. Both Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles are owned by WA Football, with a board of directors operating Fremantle on WA Football's behalf.

Despite having participated in and won several finals matches, Fremantle is one of only three active AFL clubs not to have won a premiership (the others being and ), though it did claim a minor premiership in 2015 and reached the 2013 Grand Final, losing to . High-profile players who forged careers at Fremantle include All-Australian Matthew Pavlich, Hall of Fame inductee Peter Bell, and dual Brownlow Medal winner Nat Fyfe, who previously captained the club under both Ross Lyon and current head coach Justin Longmuir. Originally based at Fremantle Oval, the club's training and administrative facilities are now located nearby at Cockburn ARC in Cockburn Central, whilst its home ground is the 60,000-capacity Perth Stadium in Burswood.

Fremantle has also fielded a women's team in the AFL Women's league since the competition's inception in 2017. They are currently coached by Lisa Webb and captained by Angelique Stannett. Their most successful season was the 2020 season, in which the team was undefeated, but was ultimately cancelled without a premiership awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian rules football in Fremantle

The port city of Fremantle, Western Australia has a rich footballing history, hosting the state's first organised game of Australian rules in 1881. Fremantle's first teams, the Fremantle Football Club, the Union/Fremantle Football Club and East Fremantle Football Club, dominated the early years of the West Australian Football League (WAFL), winning 24 of the first 34 premierships. Since 1897, Fremantle Oval has been the main venue for Australian rules football matches in the city. Until the opening of Perth Stadium in 2018, the record attendance for an Australian rules football game in Western Australia stood at 52,781 for the 1979 WANFL Grand Final between East Fremantle and South Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

Champion footballers who forged careers playing for Fremantle-based clubs include, among other Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees, Steve Marsh, Jack Sheedy, John Todd, George Doig, William Truscott and Bernie Naylor.

File:Football match Fremantle Oval 1910.jpg, Marking contest from a Fremantle Derby between South Fremantle and East Fremantle, c. 1910
File:Fremantle_Oval_1910.jpg, A view over Fremantle Oval and the surrounding buildings, c. 1910
File:George_Doig.png, East Fremantle legend George Doig, namesake of Fremantle's Doig Medal
File:Bernie_Naylor.png, South Fremantle legend Bernie Naylor
File:Fremantle Oval Statue.jpg, Statue of John Gerovich's mark over Ray French

History

Early years (1993–2006)

Despite the long history of Australian rules football in Fremantle, the expansion of the then-Victorian Football League into Western Australia, took the form of a state-wide club, with the creation of the West Coast Eagles, in 1987. Soon afterwards, there were negotiations between WAFL clubs East Fremantle and South Fremantle, regarding formation of a second WA-based VFL club, as a joint venture. Due to exclusive rights clauses in contracts between the West Coast Eagles and the VFL, a second WA franchise was not legally possible until after the 1992 season. Moreover, the model of a joint venture between two WAFL clubs was opposed by the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC).

On 14 December 1993, the AFL announced that a new team, to be based in Fremantle, would enter the league in 1995, with the provisional name "Fremantle Sharks." The licence had cost the WAFC $4 million. On 21 July 1994, the names "Fremantle Football Club", "Fremantle Dockers" and the club colours of purple, red, green and white were announced.

A first training session for the inaugural squad was held on 31 October 1994 at Fremantle Oval.

The team endured some tough years near the bottom of the premiership ladder, until they finished fifth after the home and away rounds in 2003 and made the finals for the first time. The elimination final against eighth-placed Essendon at Subiaco Oval was then the club's biggest ever game, but ended in disappointment for the home team, with the finals experience of Essendon proving too strong for the young team. They then missed making the finals in the following two seasons, finishing both years with 11 wins, 11 losses and only 1 game outside the top eight.

After an average first half to the 2006 AFL season, Fremantle finished the year with a club-record nine straight wins to earn themselves third position at the end of the home and away season with a club-best 15 wins. In the qualifying final against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, the Dockers led for the first three-quarters before being overrun by the Crows. The following week saw the club win its first finals game in the semi-final against Melbourne at Subiaco Oval. The club subsequently earned a trip to Sydney to play in its first ever preliminary final, where they lost by 35 points at ANZ Stadium to the Sydney Swans.

Recent history (2007–present)

In 2007, following Chris Connolly's resignation midway through the season, Mark Harvey, a three-time premiership player with Essendon, was appointed caretaker coach for the club. During his seven matches for 2007, Harvey coached the Dockers to four wins and three losses. The club came 11th that year, and Harvey was appointed full-time coach at the end of the season. The following year saw the club slump to 14th.

In Round 15, 2009, Fremantle recorded the lowest score in its history and of the 2000s, scoring only 1.7 (13) to the Adelaide Crows' 19.16 (130). It scored just one point in the first half and the only goal scored came in the third quarter.

After finishing sixth in 2010, the club played in the finals for the first time since 2006. The team played Hawthorn at Subiaco Oval, and despite being considered underdogs, went on to win by 30 points. The win came from strong performances from Luke McPharlin and Adam McPhee who limited the impact of Lance Franklin and Luke Hodge, respectively. The team's second ever win in a finals match qualified them for a semi-final to be played against the Geelong Cats at the MCG the following week. In a one-sided contest, the Dockers lost by 69 points.

The 2011 season saw Fremantle lose just once in the first six rounds before ending the year in 11th position after losing their final seven games. Fremantle's collapse was considered a result of a heavy injury count that began in the pre-season.

In September 2011, Mark Harvey was sensationally sacked by the club in favour of still-contracted St Kilda coach Ross Lyon.

Fremantle qualified for the finals in 2012 after finishing in seventh position. In their elimination final against Geelong, the Dockers won their first ever finals game away from home with a 16-point victory at the MCG behind Matthew Pavlich's six goals. Fremantle subsequently lost to the Crows in Adelaide the following week, ending their finals campaign.

In 2013, Fremantle finished the home-and-away season in third position with a club-best 16 wins. In their qualifying final against the Cats in Geelong, the Dockers produced a first-round upset with a 15-point victory to advance through to a home preliminary final. In the preliminary final, the Dockers defeated the reigning premiers, the Sydney Swans, by 25 points to advance to their maiden AFL Grand Final. In the 2013 grand final, the Dockers were defeated by Hawthorn by a margin of 15 points.

In 2014, the club reached the finals for the third successive year with a top-four finish and 16 wins, but despite earning a double chance, they were knocked out after losses to Sydney away and Port Adelaide at home. Nat Fyfe was awarded the Leigh Matthews Trophy for winning the AFL Players' Association MVP award.

In 2015, the club were crowned minor premiers for the first time in their history, earning their first piece of silverware with the McClelland Trophy. However, the club failed to convert this into a grand final appearance, losing to Hawthorn by 27 points in its home preliminary final. Fremantle ended their season with Nat Fyfe becoming the club's first Brownlow Medalist.

Season 2016 marked Matthew Pavlich's final season in the AFL, as Fremantle missed the finals following a 10-game losing streak to start the year, finishing in 16th position with just four wins.

Ross Lyon was sacked as coach on 20 August 2019 after the club failed to qualify for the finals. He was replaced by Justin Longmuir.

Longmuir's first season was during the COVID-19-affected 2020 AFL season, which was shortened from 22 matches to 17. Fremantle would lose their first four games before finding form and finishing 12th on the ladder with 7 wins and 10 losses.

The 2022 AFL season would prove to be a breakout year for the Dockers, who qualified for finals for the first time since the 2015 AFL season and were in contention for a top-4 finish throughout the season before finishing fifth with fifteen wins, six losses, and one draw. Fremantle's return to finals saw them play the Western Bulldogs in an elimination final at Optus Stadium. Fremantle were dominated in the early stages of the game, with the Bulldogs holding a 42–1 lead at the nine-minute mark of the second term. Fremantle would go on to kick 11 of the last 13 goals to win the game by 13 points. Fremantle next faced Collingwood in a semi-final at the MCG in front of a crowd of over 90,000, losing the game by 20 points.

After losing their opening 2 games of the 2023 AFL season, Fremantle recorded their first win in the 56th Western Derby, beating the Eagles by 41 points. Despite a mid-season resurgence, beating both 2022 Grand Finalists in consecutive weeks, the Dockers would fade out to finish 14th on the ladder.

Fremantle had a promising start to the 2024 AFL season, winning their first three games, before two close losses in Adelaide and a shock loss in Western Derby 58 surrounded their season with uncertainty. The Dockers rebounded, losing just one of their next six games before the mid-season bye to sit inside the top eight. They were entrenched inside the top eight for much of the year and were in the top four as late as round 20, before losing their final four matches. This was catalysed by injuries to key position players, including captain Alex Pearce, leading goalkicker Josh Treacy, and starting ruckman Sean Darcy. The Dockers finished 10th with a record of 12 wins, 10 losses and one draw, just half a win behind Carlton in eighth place.

Performance

After struggling in their early start-up years, Fremantle have continued to struggle over the years, with an overall win percentage of 45.52% as of July 2024, ranked 16th out of the 21 teams to have ever played in the VFL/AFL league. Because of this unimpressive win record, they are yet to win a premiership. This fact has earned them the nickname "Flagmantle", which is an optimistic joke used by fans. The Dockers' halcyon years took place between 2013 and 2015, where they earned three successive top-four finishes to go with their only grand final appearance (2013) and their only minor premiership (2015).

Fremantle played its first drawn match in Round 8, 2013, against the Sydney Swans. In 2006, against St Kilda at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, they played in a controversial Round 5 match (dubbed " Sirengate") that initially ended in a draw. However, the AFL overturned the draw result the following Wednesday after the match; the controversy was due to an off-field error made by the timekeepers not sounding the siren for long enough to confirm that the umpires heard it, as well as the siren not being loud enough for the field umpires to hear over the roar of the crowd in the first place, and Fremantle were eventually declared as one-point winners with no protest from St Kilda. It marked the first time a game result had later been overturned since 1900.

Year-by-year performance

AFL H&A finishing positions (1995–present)

Club identity

Nickname

The club is nicknamed the "Dockers" in reference to Fremantle's history as a port city. Shortly after the club was launched in 1994, Levi Strauss & Co., which produces the Dockers brand of clothing, challenged the club's right to use the name "Fremantle Dockers", specifically on clothing. As a result, the club and the AFL discontinued the official use of the "Dockers" nickname in 1997. However, it remained in common usage both inside and outside the club, and continued to appear in the official team song "Freo Way to Go" and as the title of the official club magazine ''Docker''. In October 2010, the strong association that members and fans have with the "Dockers" nickname led the club to form a new arrangement with Levi Strauss & Co which allows the club to officially use the nickname "Dockers" everywhere including on clothing and other brand elements. This name change was made in conjunction with changes to the club logo and playing strip.

Guernsey

Until 2011 the Fremantle Football Club used the anchor symbol as the basis for all of their guernseys. The home guernsey was purple, with a white anchor on the front separating the chest area into red and green panels, representing the traditional maritime port and starboard colours. The colours also acknowledged Fremantle's large Italian community, which historically has been associated with the city's fishing community. The away or clash guernsey was all white with a purple anchor. Since the end of the 2010 home and away season, the home jumper is purple with three white chevrons, and the away jumper is white with purple chevrons.

One game each year is designated as the ''Purple Haze'' game, where an all-purple jumper with a white anchor is worn. This game is used to raise money for the Starlight Children's Foundation. After the guernsey re-design to a predominately purple home jumper, Fremantle wore the Starlight Foundation logo, a yellow star, above the highest chevron for their Purple Haze game.

Since 2003, the AFL has hosted an annual Heritage Round. Until 2006, Fremantle wore a white guernsey with three red chevrons, to emulate the jumper worn by the original Fremantle Football Club in 1885. However, in 2007, the selected round had Fremantle playing Sydney, who also wear red and white. An alternative blue and white striped design was used, based on the jumper worn by the East Fremantle Football Club in their 1979 WAFL Grand Final win over the South Fremantle Football Club. This ''Fremantle Derby'' held the record, prior to the opening of Optus Stadium, for the highest attendance at a football game of any code in Western Australia, with 52,781 attending at Subiaco Oval.

In September 2008, newly appointed CEO Steve Rosich confirmed that the Fremantle Football Club would undergo a thorough review of all areas, including the club's team name, song, guernsey, and logo in a bid to boost its marketability. However he later confirmed that the purple colour will be maintained as it had become synonymous with Fremantle.

Home ground and headquarters

Fremantle Football Club had its original training and administration facilities at Fremantle Oval from 1995 until 2017. On 21 February 2017 the club moved its training and administration facilities to Cockburn ARC, a professional sports training facility and community recreation centre that was constructed in 2015–17 at a price of $109 million, located in the suburb of Cockburn Central.

The team's home games are played at Optus Stadium, a 61,000 seat multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Burswood. The club began playing home matches at the venue in 2018, having previously played home matches at Subiaco Oval from 2001 onward and before that the WACA Ground from 1995 to 2000.

Songs

The official song of Fremantle is " Freo Way to Go", a truncated version of the club's original song, "Freo Heave Ho", written by Ken Walther. "Freo Way to Go" was adopted in 2011 following a poll on the Dockers' official website, beating out three other newly composed songs, including "Freo Freo", which was written by Fremantle-based indie rock group and the Dockers' then-number one ticket holder, Eskimo Joe. The poll took place around the same time that the club's guernsey and logo were also updated.

Unlike other AFL team songs, "Freo Way to Go" is played to a contemporary rock tune. "Freo Heave Ho" also had a section based on Igor Stravinsky's arrangement of the traditional Russian folk song, " Song of the Volga Boatmen", which was dropped in 2011, leaving only the original composition of Walther. Due to its unconventional style, the song is derided by many opposition supporters and defended with equally fierce loyalty by many fans. Author and Fremantle fan Tim Winton boasted: "Every other team song sounds like a ' Knees Up Mother Brown' from previous eras. We've got a backbeat".

In 2021, in response to being named the club's new number one ticket holder, Tame Impala's Kevin Parker released "Go Freo", a "pump-up" track to be played at Fremantle's home games. Bolstering the Fremantle connection, the song draws inspiration from Bon Scott-era AC/DC.

Mascots

*1995–1999: ''Grinder'' – a cartoon-like docker man, in a similar style to Popeye

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