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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Our three games today, Adelaide and Melbourne, Gold Coast and the Hawks. And we start, of course, with tonight, Fremantle and Geelong, which is juicy in prospects. Right, let's get into it. Fremantle, last year's pitcher to this year's pitcher.
Chapter 2: What makes the Fremantle vs Geelong matchup significant?
Paint the picture of the team that's improving.
Yeah, well, it's a different team. And we probably felt last year, even though the 2025 Dockers were a lead at contest and the defence was excellent, we probably questioned whether they had the ability to be able to score enough points to be a real contender last season. But what I think we're seeing this year with the 2026 Dockers... They're still elite with contest. Their defense is excellent.
But now they're an attacking team.
Chapter 3: How has Fremantle's performance changed from last year to this year?
So they do look like a genuine premiership contender this year, whereas I probably felt last year the side looked more like a finals team that had a ceiling. They still obviously played finals last year, and they're really strong with contested ball clearance. They were hard to score against. But there were a couple of themes, I think, last year when we watched the Dockers play.
They had a poor forward efficiency defensively. So they weren't generating shots per inside 50. Their inside 50 retention needed a bit of work and they weren't generating scores from clearance. So they were quite slow and predictable with how they moved the ball. And against the better sides, they allowed the opposition to set up their defence really well behind the ball.
So it felt like even though the 2025 Fremantle Dockers were winning enough footy, they just weren't creating enough dangerous opportunities to score. And that was on the back of that sort of slower ball movement. And as I mentioned, the clearances didn't really become scores. But what we're seeing now, though, in 2026, the biggest change has been that attacking efficiency.
So they've jumped from roughly, I think it was about 86 points per game last year to now 96 points per game. So that's only 10 points, but it is significant. So we know the combination of Tracy and Amos and Paddy Voss, that's really transformed Fremantle's scoring profile. So they're scoring better.
They're no longer reliant on those lower scoring games, those grinding wins, those real defensive contests. They're now scoring really well on the back of their still defensive, their strong defensive profile. And they're scoring really well from clearance. So that's been something that I reckon has been a big focus for Justin Longmuir over the break and over the summer.
And we're seeing that really transfer now into positive scoreboard pressure. But the thing I think we love the most is they still defend really well. So their offense that they're generating now and the scores from clearance, it hasn't impacted their defense. If anything, it's getting better and better.
So even if you look at their defensive scores against at Optus Stadium, so this is they're playing Geelong, there tonight. They've given up 70 points to Melbourne, 43 to Richmond, 41 to West Coast, 89 to Carlton, 73 to the Hawks, 74 points to St Kilda. That's an average of 65 points they concede at home.
So they are one of the best sides obviously at their home deck, but they are combining now a really good defensive profile with scoring from clearance and also generating a lot more offense in their game. So yeah, this is a team that deserve to be on top of the ladder.
Cats the only team that's beaten the Dockers. Let's hear from Justin Longmuir here on the challenge of Geelong.
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Chapter 4: What are the key strengths of Fremantle's current team?
Yes, but no. So this was back in round one. So the Fremantle were 35 points up. And as Justin Longmire, we heard him say then, the game looked a lot like he would have liked. for big parts of that game. But then, having said that, after quarter time, Geelong had 42 more contested possessions, took 50 more marks than Fremantle after quarter time and had 16 more inside 50.
So I think controlling the tempo by changing gears when they need to will be a big, strong focus for Chris Scott this week. He's got to spread the ground in offence, shift the ball and try and break that defensive bubble that Fremantle set up But we know with Geelong, they can go also fast and they can go forward.
But we've seen the impact of what Holmes and Smith have had on Geelong's ball use in the last 18 months in particular. With Smith out now, that just leaves a big hole in the side. So on that day, and I talked about Amos, Voss and Tracy, in round one, Geelong held them to three goals combined. So those big three players, Geelong would take that. If you offered that to Chris Scott today,
that Amos, Voss and Tracy will only kick three goals between them tonight. He would grab that and say, yes, please. Friar only took six marks inside forward 50 in round one. So a lot of things Geelong did really well. But as we heard from Justin Longmuir, there's a lot of things that they thought that they did really well in that game as well.
What sort of tactical questions would Chris Scott be asking his coaches to consider tonight?
Yeah, so I think how the week normally sets up is Scotty would have got his assistant coaches in this week with his opposition analysis coach and said, and I think those would be the main questions he would have asked his coaches. is how do we limit Fremantle's intercept game? Like how do we limit their defensive system?
So I've already mentioned how hard they are to score against, particularly over at Optus Stadium. But I think the answers he'll get will, we've got to, Geelong have got to lower their eyes inside forward 50. They can't blast it away.
And they've got to use those short kicking chains through the corridor when they're available and just avoid those predictable long kicks to where we know that Fremantle are going to outnumber. and they've got to force Fremantle's key defenders to defend one-on-one rather than zoning off and assisting in the air.
So I just think if Geelong can reduce Fremantle's intercept marks game by even as low as five or 10 marks per night, that significantly changes the game for Geelong. They just can't blast it away. They've got to be a bit more precise in how they use the ball tonight. The other question, the big question for Chris Scott's going to be, what's our plan with Luke Jackson?
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