The Definitive Guide for Official AFL Website of the Fremantle Dockers

Abraham won that flag with Bell, while Jeff White and James Clement prospered after expulsion. By 2001, Fremantle's trades had directly handed other clubs Andrew Mc, Leod, Darryl Wakelin, Jeff Farmer, Steven King, Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas, James Kelly, Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell, while Freo also missed opportunities at Chris Judd and Steve Johnson.

Bell was drawn house in 2001, Chris Connolly selected coach in 2002. Read This was to purchase recognized gamers, trading high draft picks for Chris Tarrant, Trent Croad, Des Headland and the returning Farmer. None set the world alight, however Freo made progress. Their very first finals series was available in 2003, when they lost to Essendon at Subiaco after beating every interstate visitor that year.

Brett Bewley of the Dockers looks on during a Fremantle Dockers AFL News Photo - Getty Images

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"It's fantastic how confidential our team remains in the scheme of things." In 2004 they directly missed the finals with 11 wins, however for the very first time more than 3 of those came interstate, Freo finishing with 5 foreign success. In 2006 they won their very first final, eventually losing an initial last in Sydney.

Established players subsided, Conolly resigned, 2 consecutive seasons yielded six wins each. Moments of Fremantle funny remained, like their one-goal video game versus Adelaide. However crucially, Freo had begun getting their recruiting right. Where 2006's draftees handled 13 games between them, the 2007 group are now on 174. In 2008 new coach Mark Harvey really nailed the group's first strong draft, getting Stephen Hill, Hayden Ballantyne, Nick Suban, Zac Clarke and Michael Walters in one clutch.

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Lee Spurr, Michael Barlow and Matt de Boer were all successful rookie elevations, as were Ryan Crowley and Sandilands prior to them. 5) Hard-nosed modernity, When Harvey was sacked in favour of Ross Lyon for season 2011, it showed that Fremantle were prepared to get ruthless. At the same time the club reviewed their image, lastly dropping their disorderly colour medley in favour of plain dark purple with a touch of white, and paring back the club song.

He required every gamer buy into his technique or hit the road. It worked: 2012 saw the now-official Dockers set a brand-new club record of seven interstate wins, while this year has yielded 6 and one draw. Zac Dawson, Danyle Pearce and the revelatory Lachie Neale joined the roster, while Lyon went about getting whatever out of the gamers he inherited.