Motormouth Mitch: Fremantle Dockers leaders fail to make presence felt, Eagles WAFL side faces questions

From Fremantle’s horror loss to Geelong to Don Pyke’s latest problem at West Coast, The West Australian’s Mitchell Woodcock takes a no-holds barred look at the weekend of AFL. Poor presence Forget the margin. Forget the skill errors. Forget the indecision. The most disappointing aspect of Fremantle’s diabolical loss to Geelong was the lack of presence from any of their leaders to impose their will on the game. To watch a teenage debutant spark a fightback was both incredible and troublesome at the same time for those devoted to the purple. Putting it simply, Fremantle were bullied and beaten up by the Cats and they had no response. From the start Geelong looked more creative and confident in the way they wanted to play. And the Dockers never threw a significant enough punch outside of Murphy Reid’s amazing four-goal run in the third term. Justin Longmuir’s side lost the tackle count 89-59, and even worse was the tackles inside 50 which was 23-5. The return of Michael Walters and debut of Shai Bolton should help the latter, but it still was nowhere near good enough. None of the Dockers senior players took the game between their teeth and said ‘enough is enough’. There was no crunching tackle to say to their teammates ‘we’re not going to take this’. No Docker had more than six tackles in the game and only six players had four tackles or more for the match. Josh Treacy or Jye Amiss didn’t crash a pack to signal any sort of intent. And in defence there was a lack of desperation, especially in the final term when the Cats feasted on the Dockers. If this team wants to be a premiership threat they need to get a bit nasty. They need to be grittier. It’s not like Geelong’s midfield was the champion engine room of previous years. For the majority of the game skipper Patrick Dangerfield was stationed as a forward. This was an opportunity for Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw and the rest to get their hands dirty and impose themselves. Instead, they were put under enormous pressure and didn’t respond. Their depth was also exposed significantly. Matt Johnson found a lot of the footy but had no real impact with it. Corey Wagner didn’t provide drive out of defence and under-fire ruckman Liam Reidy didn’t do himself any favours to stay in the team. Sydney are now coming west without a win from their first two games, so expect them to be ready for the right. Fremantle need to spend the week working out if they’re up for it themselves. WAFL issues West Coast have been on a rampage in the past 18 months under chief executive Don Pyke. They have brought back the banner, the old song and overhauled their football department to try to resurrect this powerful club in all aspects. Pyke still has one massive issue, and that is what to do with their WAFL side. And if it isn’t fixed soon there is a serious danger of hindering the development of their next generation which is so important in their pursuit of a return to finals. For too long the stand-alone side in the second tier competition has not worked for this club and it doesn’t look to be any different in 2025. The Eagles have lost their three non-listed players with AFL experience in Trey Ruscoe (South Fremantle), Jason Gillbee (West Perth) and Jackson Nelson (Victoria). They have not announced any big name recruits to back their AFL talent and everything points towards another year of struggles in the WAFL. In a pre-season clash on Saturday they lost to West Perth by 64 points. But more alarming was the fact they kicked only five goals and conceded 31 scoring shots against a Falcons outfit that didn’t play finals last year. These sort of performances are surely not beneficial for the first to fourth year players who are seen as the future of the Eagles. And it’s part of a horror pattern, with West Coast winning only nine of their past 72 games. You only have to look at Geelong to see how important development is. Yes, the Cats do well in terms of recruiting. But these signings are often only the cream on top of the talent that Chris Scott and his team are able to develop. Look at West Australian forward Shannon Neale. He spent the better part of four seasons behind the powerful duo of Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron. Now Hawkins is retired, he has come in as a ready-made partner for Cameron and they will keep the Cats in line for another run at finals. West Coast need to fix their WAFL team so the likes of Coen Livingstone, Tom Gross, Lucca Grego, Malakai Champion and Harvey Johnston are given the best chance to succeed as AFL footballers. And the system they have right now clearly isn’t working. Young talent time It seems for the right first-year footballer there is no stage too big to make your debut. Where once the kids of the AFL were nurtured in the game, it appears the modern footballers are coming in ready to tear matches apart. On Thursday night it was No.1 pick Sam Lalor, who looked every bit an AFL star with two goals from 18 touches to help Richmond to what could be the upset of the season over Carlton. Only 24 hours later, Essendon small forward Isaac Kako kicked off his career with an incredible goal in front of more than 80,00 people at the MCG. We’ve already mentioned Murphy Reid’s effort for Fremantle at GMHBA Stadium — a ground as hard as any to play at as a senior player let alone a first-gamer. Unsurprisingly, father-son gun Levi Ashcroft began his career at Brisbane with 25 touches and four clearances including a monstrous 10-disposal final quarter. Sid Draper came on as the sub for Adelaide — who were already dominating St Kilda — but looked more than comfortable against the more senior players around him. And if it hadn’t been for illness, I dare say Bo Allan would have put in a strong performance for West Coast against Gold Coast on Sunday. Debutants no longer have to be mollycoddled when running out for the first time.