On Saturday night, Fremantle played a Richmond team whose year of injury and losses couldn’t be un-clustered with a crowbar and a Dusty fend-off (although put in a call to the AFL CEO and he may tell you that they’ve never been better). Josh Treacy kicked a career-best five goals, Andrew Brayshaw and Hayden Young combined for 60 possessions and three goals, and they handed out a pretty decisive pounding, winning by eight-goals and interest.
To follow up last week’s win in Sydney so matter-of-factly suggests there is nothing illegitimate about Fremantle’s position in the AFL top four. It may not carry the same editorial weight as an eight-month discussion of the preternatural Harley Reid, but the fact that this Dockers team appears to be evolving into a genuine contender to run deep into September would seem, even to the untrained observer, worth at least a couple more pages in the back of the West Australian.
