G’day punchers! Can’t tell you how happy I was to realise Monday was a public holiday, because I did not feel emotionally ready to write the newsletter Sunday night.
Up until Charlie Cameron kicked his goal in the last quarter, last week was an all-timer.
Post that moment… Mark LeCras has a quote that’s fitting here (iykyk).
I was struggling to put the Fremantle section of this newsletter into words, so thankfully our mate Tim Yap - who wrote this unreal piece in the lead-up - sent through some very well-articulated thoughts on the matter for us.
For those non-Dockers, feel free to scroll to the bottom for the AFLW points and some takeaways from the AFL Futures game.
For the Fremantle people here, read Tim’s piece and prepare for strong feelings.
A bit of info for the new subscribers this season, Jumper Punches will continue to hit your inbox every week through to AFLW season, and then the AFL and AFLW drafts, so stick around for everything you need to know right across the footy spectrum.
Let’s get stuck in.
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FREMANTLE
It’s Sunday, not even 24 hours after the 2026 AFL Grand Final, and I feel numb.
I keep replaying those final moments in my head thinking something will change, surely it didn’t end that way?
We’d shown up.
We’d won the midfield battle.
We’d won territory.
We’d kept this offensive juggernaut to 72 points after seeing our skipper tragically fall face first into the turf, never to return to the ground.
We’d led by 17 with four minutes to go, as a sea of purple rose to their feet across the MCG, and I looked to my best mate for the first time all day, with a belief in our eyes that a lifelong dream was about to come true.
We should’ve been premiers.
Should’ve.
And as I watched from the stands as Brisbane players received their premiership medals; as Chris Fagan stood on that stage and spoke the words, “you probably deserved to win the game today”, I wept into my scarf in a stadium full of 100,023 people, that to me couldn’t have felt more empty.
Because as life so often teaches us, we don’t always get what we deserve.
My flight is not until Tuesday morning, and to everyone who’s checked in and asked how I’m feeling, or what I’m going to do, the answer I give (if any) is that I simply do not know.
I don’t know what to do.
My wife stayed back in Perth this week. She’s a massive footy fan, unfortunately barracking for Carlton. She watches every game she can over the course of a weekend except for Freo away games, preferring not to see what the club does to my emotions (she doesn’t like the yelling).
Whenever I’ve broken into a monologue this season about Freo and the journey it’s been, she will listen until a natural break in cadence, before turning to me and saying “you know you have Dan to talk to about this right?” Often followed by, “I’m happy for you though!”
She was watching the Grand Final with a group of our friends at a packed Fremantle Oval, and called me shortly after the final siren.
When I saw her name come up I took a deep breath, put on my bravest voice, and said the words I knew she needed to hear - “I’m ok.”
What I heard on the other end of the phone was her breaking into a sob, almost unable to speak, as I repeated those two words over and over in an attempt to console her.
It hurt her so much. As much as I’d seen anything hurt her before. Yet if you had asked her pre-game, she would’ve told you she’d eat her shoe before she cried over Fremantle.
But across four quarters of football, and those shattering final minutes, that all changed.
Not just because she understood what this had meant to me; but because she knew I was lying when I told her I was ok; and she would have moved mountains to take that feeling away from me.
To have someone feel such empathy for your own emotional experience, is to have someone who truly loves you. It’s the kind of love that funnily enough we have for our football clubs. The kind of love that keeps bringing us back despite how much it hurts. The kind of love that’s unconditional.
And so I called her back on my way home.
And she didn’t say a word as I cried and cried and cried to her, walking through the streets of Carlton North.
And when I was finished, I told her that I loved her and we hung up the phone. Nothing more needing to be said.
I still don’t know what to do. I feel a sense of numbness I’ve only felt during the worst times of my life. And even as I write this piece, part of me wonders if I’m just using it as a way to convince myself of something I don’t truly believe. If I am in fact, finally out of emotional tickets when it comes to this tragic passion of mine.
It’s unfair, it’s unjust, it’s all of the things you feel it is. And it’s going to be a long journey back for so many of us as we work through those emotions.
But we will. Because what other choice do we have?
The hard truth is, I don’t know if I’ll ever watch Fremantle win a flag. Whether I deserve to or not. But what I do know is I deserve that kind of love that I’m so lucky to have found. One that you all do too.
And although it doesn’t feel like it now (my god it bloody doesn’t feel like it now), it’s that same unconditional love that will bring me back next year; sitting in that same seat at Optus Stadium, or hopefully inside the G on that final day in September, to do it again with you all.
So be kind to yourselves Purple Army.
And maybe, just maybe, footy will one day be kind back.
Until next year, and every year after that,
Tim
WEST COAST AFLW
Eagles 6.9 (45) def Bombers 4.11 (35)
Season properly back on track now with a third straight win. They’re still 12th on the ladder and their percentage is horrible but at least there’s a pulse.
Maximum 10 coaches votes to Ella Roberts after 31 disposals, nine tackles, eight score involvements and nine intercept possessions. She also had two rundown tackles late when the Bombers were up and about.
The Eagles’ injury problems are starting to come good. Courtney Rowley has been a significant out after suffering a second ACL injury - and she showed her class in her return. Her seven intercepts were behind only Roberts for the game, her defensive work was great and she’ll only continue to improve from here.
FREMANTLE AFLW
Dockers 9.6 (60) def Crows 5.5 (35)
Only Fremantle’s second win over Adelaide since the start of the AFLW, they go back into the top eight and Hayler Miller becomes the club’s all-time leading W goal kicker. Good result.
Some are suggesting this was Kiara Bowers’ best ever game. I understand the argument being made, without completely agreeing with it - she had a career-high 17 uncontested disposals and 600+ metres gained (plus 29 touches overall and two goals) and is adapting her game successfully at 34 while still rolling out best-on-ground performances. How many players are able to change roles and maintain a serious influence post-30? Not many, that’s for sure. She’s a very special footballer.
News this week that the Dockers are a chance to lure Zippy Fish home. A couple of years ago they looked on the slide, but they’ve been able to re-tool by being bold at the trade table. Gabby Newton, Eden Zanker, Bella Smith… Zippy next?
AFL FUTURES GAME
Campbell Creyk, Maxim Collins, Rafe Williamson (West Perth), Fynn Tomasini (Perth), James Artemis (East Fremantle) and Axel Walsh (East Perth) were all in action on Saturday in a national young guns showcase in Melbourne.
Long-term readers will know we are fans of this kid, but Creyk was seriously impressive against the best bottom-agers in the country. Was quick and clean in wet conditions and found the scoreboard.
Walsh did Walsh things in the ruck, which probably surprised people watching him for the first time, but after seeing him do it at league level in the WAFL, it came as no surprise. Expected to be announced as a Tassie Devil this week.
That’s us all caught up.
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Catch you next week.
Kudos to Tim. It takes quite some effort to write such a measured, open, & clearly heartfelt response to Saturday’s game so soon after it all fell to shit.
If I were to take any small positive from the game it’s that we were beaten by a very good team (three-peats don’t grow on trees) who knew precisely what to do to wrest the game from us, & when & how to do it.
We need to look at those last 4 minutes &, capricious ball bounces & game ending injuries aside because they’re out of our control, ask what WE need to do to lift ourselves to that level, & how to be there consistently.
We were THAT close, and we can close that gap. Bring on 2027.