u/QuarterFooty

Watching The Front Bar last night and the boys mentioned that this weekend will be Neil Erasmus's 50th game in AFL. What a journey this guy has been on, its been a slow and steady one over 4 seasons, been in and out of the team but has proven he is one of the handy players we have got, not to mention an important piece to our 2026 mission.

And along the way he's accomplished a fair bit, being part of the 2024 WAFL Premiers with Peel Thunder, won the historic Simpson Medal for best on ground in the WAFL Grand Final & the Tuckey Medal as Peel Thunder's Best & Fairest that same season.

And now he's a more frequent player featured in our games.

Congratulations Raz on a great milestone.

Brodie Grundy has added another accolade to his career highlights after winning the Goodes-O'Loughlin Medal for being the best on ground in Sydney's annual Marn Grook Game. The medal was first established in 2016, named after two of the Sydney Swans finest indigenous players in Adam Goodes & Michael O'Loughlin.

Over the medal's ten year lifespan, its had a great list of recipients. Tom Mitchell, Sam Reid, two time winners Lance Franklin & Chad Warner. The only three time medal winner Issac Heeney and now Brodie Grundy.

Fun fact: All the medal winners previously mentioned were Sydney Swans players when they were awarded the medal, but only once in the medal's run that a non-Sydney player ever won the medal. That would be none other than Luke Ryan of the Fremantle Dockers, back in 2020 after Freo's victory against Sydney in the Marn Grook Trophy game at Optus Stadium.

Since we're nearing the next match between Fremantle & Essendon on Sunday afternoon, I thought of diving into the old archives and look where it all started with the two teams.

Many years ago back when Fremantle entered the AFL in 1994. In its first official competitive season in 1995, the young Dockers competed in a series of preseason practice matches, and one of them was against AFL powerhouse Essendon, that match was known as D-Day.

The two clubs came together and created the Albert Thurgood Challenge Trophy. Named after goalscoring champion of the early 19th century Albert Thurgood. A VFA/VFL premiership player for Essendon & VFL Leading Goalkicker, also a WAFA (now known as the WAFL) premiership player at the original Fremantle Football Club and leading goalkicker in the WAFA.

And on that day in the 11th of February at Fremantle Oval, Fremantle would win that game by 50 points and the cannon trophy.

This old story is also mentioned on page 27 of the Fremantle Dockers: An Illustrated History book.

So on AFL Tables, they have a concept on a Club Champion. Quoting the website page:

The title of 'Club Champion' is held until the holder loses, the title passing to their vanquisher.
The inaugural champion is deemed to be Fitzroy, by virtue of having the largest win in Round 1, 1897.

Hawthorn came into Round 9 as that champion club, and was defeated by Fremantle and the Dockers will take the title from Hawthorn. So as it stands, Fremantle could be the team to beat currently in the competition.

What a miraculous victory by our boys last night, against the mighty and ever mortal GF enemy in the Hawthorn Footy Club. Watching the game and the crowd at Optus Stadium made it feel like a finals like game in May, the 54,000 plus was one of the catalysts that got Freo over the finish line in the end, especially when the Wharfie Time Bells starting ringing out over the stadium and the crowd made a huge amount of noise. That shows the AFL world that the Purple Army is without a shadow of a doubt that we are the most passionate fanbase in all of the competition, take a bow soldiers, we salute you.

Now that Fremantle have 8 victories on the run, past a major test against another finals contender in Hawthorn, logically sitting a game and half clear in second spot, two games clear in the top 4 and top 6, the most in form club going around. Became one of a few clubs in the modern era to win 3 straight games off 3 blocks of 6 day breaks, now going into a well earned 10 day break. Its good to be excited and enthusiastic over the recent run of form over the last two months. We need to sober ourselves quickly and stay in the moment, keep that lid on the hype jar shut just for a little while longer, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves just yet because its been a bad habit of ours to get caught up in the excitement this early in the season. We still have a long ways to go with 14 rounds left in the H&A season.

Flagmantle is a strong mantra for our club and fanbase, but we don't want to jinx it.