Despite not playing finals in the past two seasons, Fremantle are poised to cause a shakedown of the top four and stake their claims as a side with serious premiership aspirations in 2025.
Throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Dockers fielded the 15th youngest list and the 16th and 17th most experienced list. All the talent aside, this list just wasn't quite ready to take the leap into a permanent finals position, even if their 2022 season caught some off guard.
Now, armed with top talent across all lines, the Western Australian side will be setting their sights on 2025 and beyond.ย
Importantly, Fremantle has re-emerged as the best in the west amidst West Coast's transitionary period. This helped sway exhilarating livewire Shai Bolton across and now has them in the hunt for two more stars beyond this season; Chad Warner and Kysaiah Pickett.
While it would be a dream to land both superstars, Fremantle can currently only fiscally chase after one, so who should it be?
The case for Chad Warner
It's almost ludicrous that we even have to put forward a case for why a club should be interested in acquiring the services of Chad Warner. That's where we are at for more reasons than one.
Firstly, we are deciphering the needs of Fremantle and how many dynamic midfielders can tick off in contrast to Pickett, and two, Fremantle are already heading one of the best midfield trios in the competition.ย
Nevertheless, Warner's game continued to evolve in 2024 as he began to impose himself more and more on the scoreboard. He kicked an incredible 35 goals, which would be his 2024 and 2023 output combined while also ranking seventh in the AFL for score involvements.
On the attacking front, he also ranked 13th in total goal assists and sixth in total inside 50s. The numbers don't lie; a potent, attacking brand of footy can be led by the likes of the former East Fremantle product. And alongside him would be Hayden Young, who also ranked as the best kick inside 50 for 2024 and was a top five player for total goal assists and total inside 50s.
The two together would cause a perilous barrage of timely and damaging kicks that would drive Fremantle's so-far underwhelming attack into a new stratosphere.
'The Chad's biggest earmark to date is his uncanny ability to operate as a one-man wrecking ball and that changes the tides of a game on the back of his run and carry.
His draft analysis may not have highlighted him as a breakaway from the contest midfielder but he has demonstrated that may have been an oversight. The WA product ranked second in bounces per game and first in total bounces in 2024. Pair that with the league leader in broken tackles at a whopping 53 and you have the makings of a dynamite midfielder that won't be kept down.
With Caleb Serong and Andrew Brayshaw ready to work in the coal face, Warner could experience the freedom and liberty to damage the contest from the outside and drift forward.
The case for Kysaiah Pickett
Rumours of Pickett wanting to return to Western Australia run this time of year like clockwork. For Melbourne fans, it must be infuriating but also troublesome. Almost as if a ticking time bomb is just waiting to explode.
Recent reports and comments from the livewire forward don't bode the fandom with confidence, as it sounds like he isn't leaning toward seeing out his contract before finally heading home.
If this is to be the case, then he would be the perfect addition to the Fremantle Dockers and their premiership hunt. In fact, the soon-to-be 24-year-old has already nabbed 161 goals in his 106-game career as a small forward, putting him on track to be one of the all-time greats of his position.
This is no hyperbole or exaggeration, as his career to date stacks up with the legends of our game such as Jeff Farmer and Cyril Rioli. The former Pick 12 selection is also one of the most terrifying defensive presences in the forward 50.
His scintillating pace and tenacious attack on the ball have statistically set him up as one of the strongest tacklers inside 50.ย
In regard to what Fremantle lacks; polish inside 50 and the ability to score with great consistency stand out. That was part of the allure of acquiring a close friend of Pickett, Shai Bolton.
In tandem, there may not be a more frightening set of small forwards. Both have the ability to play above their size, are gifted with pace and incredible goal sense and, most importantly, can turn a game upside down in the blink of an eye.ย
Looking at the season gone past, having the 171cm small forward may have changed the fortune in some of the closer games in a campaign that left Fremantle fans wondering what could've been.
Round 11, in their clash with Collingwood, Fremantle stormed back from 25 points down to tie the game after a barrage of forward entries. Circumstantially, a draw was a positive result but had there been more class and availability from their forward group, could the result have been different?
The Verdict
Comparing two players is never fair or easy, and in Fremantle's position it is fair to say they would be enamoured with prizing either potential recruit.
It's fair to suggest that Pickett actually addresses a bigger area of need in regard to being a player that causes most of his damage inside the arc where the Western Australian side could use a boon. It's also not necessarily a position flush with A-grade talent across the competition.
On the other side, how many midfielders in the competition warp a game like Chad Warner and can do so without being in amongst the contest? The list is pretty short.
The AFL is taking notice and so too are the umpires, who struggled to split him from the likes of Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden, who had career years.
In this particular case, Chad Warner is our selection as the bigger need for the Cockburn inhabitants by the thinnest of margins. It is just too hard to go past midfielders of the current Swans ability, and for a team with premiership hopes, Fremantle do not bat deep enough in the engine room.
Meanwhile, their forward line still has the likes of Sam Switkowski and Michael Frederick to fill the void Pickett would encumber. Whether that is achievable remains to be seen, as he will come with a hefty price tag.
