AFL Finals Fremantle v Western Bulldogs: All the news, action and fallout from elimination final
Port Adelaide is coming hard for Josh Dunkley. But which other big names could be on their way out at the Dogs? And who will replace them?
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Port Adelaide would be prepared to offer a single first-round pick for out-of-contract Bulldogs star Josh Dunkley as the Power steps up their chase for the in-demand midfielder.
The Western Bulldogs crashed out of finals with another dramatic fadeout from 41 points up against Fremantle a year after their diabolical grand final collapse.
Coach Luke Beveridge said the club had failed to find consistency all year as it prepares for significant list changes in coming months.
Beveridge is out of contract at the end of next year and while he will be under some pressure, he has made finals in six of his eight seasons and is only the second Dogs coach after Terry Wallace to play in four consecutive finals series.
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Fremantle ruckman Rory Lobb will join the Bulldogs and potentially allow Sam Darcy to play as a swingman while ex-Dogs and Carlton full-back Liam Jones will return to the club on a three-year deal.
The Dogs defenders kept Lobb, Jye Amiss and Griffin Logue to five combined goals but have not had a regular intercept presence for some years in a game based on turnovers.
Free agent Jason Johannisen is likely to secure a bigger deal elsewhere, with the Herald Sun reporting last week that Gold Coast is one suitor.
Premiership swingman Zaine Cordy played 14 games including the last five of the Dogs’ season in defence, but is an unrestricted free agent who could prove attractive to clubs looking for full-backs.
Dunkley had put off talks over a contract until the end of the season and now has at least three options in a year in which he is out of contract but not a free agent after only seven years’ service.
Given his contract talks have drifted after starting as far back as last year’s grand final, rival clubs believe there is a good chance he will move on for a fresh start.
Port Adelaide will attempt to escalate its chase for Dunkley this week. So far the Power has offered him a long-term deal of around $650,000, similar to the Dogs’ contract offer.
The Power believes it is ahead of Brisbane, where Dunkley’s sister lives, because his girlfriend Tippah Dwan plays for the Adelaide Thunderbirds and is contracted for the 2023 season.
Two years ago the Dogs asked Essendon for two first-round picks when Dunkley’s manager Liam Pickering made clear he wanted to move clubs.
Essendon baulked but now that he is out of contract the Power believes a single first-round pick is a fair price.
Their first-round pick comes in at No.8 but will push back one spot to nine when Brisbane matches an early bid for father-son Will Ashcroft.
Rhylee West, who has not yet come to terms on a new deal, was dropped for round 23 and did not win back his spot for the finals,
Josh Schache and Stef Martin are uncontracted, while Mitch Wallis says Dogs coach Luke Beveridge is open to him playing on next year under a one-year contract.
Did ghosts of grand final haunt Bulldogs?
– Brad Elborough
As the Western Bulldogs bow out of the 2022 premiership race, coach Luke Beveridge says it is difficult to say whether there was any trauma hanging over from last year’s Grand Final loss to Melbourne.
He does admit that there were frustrations throughout this season, with the internal belief that they could do better.
But as they try to regroup and are forced to turn their attention on 2023, before they can, they need to try to sure up some uncontracted players.
That starts with Josh Dunkley, who Beveridge says they are desperate to keep at Whitten Oval.
Dunkley was arguably the Dogs best in their disappointing Elimination Final loss to Fremantle in Perth on Saturday night.
He had 23 possessions, 15 of them contested and put on 14 tackles. He also had seven clearances.
Several clubs are reportedly having a big crack at the Dogs star, including Brisbane and Port Adelaide.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE WEEK 2 FINALS FIXTURE
Beveridge says it will be financial opportunity and not soiled relationship that could see Dunkley, or any other player leave.
“We’re desperate; we hope Josh is going to stay. But I can’t tell you whether he is or whether he isn’t,” he said.
“I can tell you absolutely that the relationships are really strong. If there is a reason to leave the club, it might be for opportunity and the short lifespan of an AFL footy, you have to make hay financially as much as you can, and we understand that.
“That’s the reality that is difficult to deal with or process culturally. But it is going to be more and more normalised. We have to get used to it.”
The Dogs 2016 Norm Smith medallist Jason Johannisen and defender Zaine Cordy are also yet to be signed on for 2023.
After winning 15 home and away games in 2021, finishing fifth in the ladder and winning through to the Grand Final, the Dogs slipped this season.
They won 12 games, the Round 23 victory seeing them slip into eighth spot for just the fourth week of the season… and that was only thanks to Collingwood winning a nail biter over Carlton in the last round.
They last five losses were all against sides in the top eight.
Beveridge said it was difficult to determine what impact the Grand Final loss to Melbourne had on the group.
“I was hoping the trauma of the Grand Final wouldn’t have any lasting effects,” he said.
“It’s difficult to understand any sort of magnitude on that, whether it did or whether it didn’t. We felt, at different stages, with one or two of the significant wins, that we were definitely moving beyond that.
“But all of us as individuals, when we think about what we’re capable of, that we’d self-reflect and say, ‘I think I can be more consistent; I can be better than what I have been for the course’.
“That’s what we have to strive for next year. And that has added up to some frustrations here and there.”
Finals fixture locked in as Dockers send Pies a warning
Fremantle looked like a deer caught in the headlights for the opening quarter and a half of its Elimination Final against the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
The Dockers gave up the first six goals of the game, didn’t score a goal in the opening term, and trailed by almost seven goals early in the second quarter.
Yet, in keeping with the dramatic theme of this first week of finals, they fought back to beat the Bulldogs by 13 points and earn a crack at Collingwood in next Saturday’s Semi-Final at the MCG.
In front of its biggest ever home crowd, 58,982, Fremantle was initially knocked out of its trance by star midfielder Andrew Brayshaw. The champ had 20 touches in the opening half to lead his side back from 41 points down.
The Dockers then kicked 11 of the last 13 goals of the game to win 11.7 (73) to 8.12 (60) and become the first side to beat the Dogs this season when trailing at three-quarter-time.
Rory Lobb, widely tipped to be join the Dogs kennel next season, had only five touches in the opening half and was goalless. But he got away after the main break to take two big marks and kick two important goals.
Michael Walters looked dangerous all game and finished with three goals, including one midway through the final term after teammate Michael Frederick ran down an unaware Ed Richards in the goal square.
The Dockers may not have started the game looking ready for finals, but they sure ended it looking like a team capable of doing damage.
They only dropped out of the top four when the Magpies beat Carlton in the final minute of their Round 23 clash.
Great return
The finals-hardened Western Bulldogs scored relatively freely from the opening bounce.
Marcus Bontempelli kicked the opening goal within two minutes. He had two goals by quarter-time from his seven touches and the Dogs had 5.5 on the board; Fremantle 0.1.
The catalyst for the Dogs fast start though was Toby McLean, returning to AFL action for the first time since Round 16 of last season after recovering from an second ACL injury.
He was picked in Round 21 against Fremantle, but was unused as the medi-sub.
McLean had nine possessions in the opening term and had laid three tackles. He faded a little as the game went on, but finished with 21 touches and nine tackles.
Sam Darcy, one of six players in the Dogs line-up that didn’t play in last year’s Grand Final loss to Melbourne, also had a goal next to his name in the first term.
In contrast, Fremantle had only four players who have tasted finals footy, in Walters, David Mundy, Lobb and James Aish.
Shake off the nerves
Remember, this was Fremantle’s first finals appearance since 2015 when they finished on top of the ladder and lost to eventual premier Hawthorn in the Preliminary Final.
They’ve turned over a heap of players since then and even changed coaches. Lobb and Aish’s September action was when playing with other clubs.
After the finals-hardened Dogs kicked away, Fremantle’s first goal came 20 minutes into the second quarter, off the boot of Walters, and that was courtesy of a soft holding free kick, again against Richards.
Ten minutes later, Jye Amiss lined up for their fourth and kicked truly as the half-time siren sounded. This was a set shot from second-gamer Amiss, who earlier hit the goalpost from another set shot that was only 15m out, dead in front.
The youngster playing his second AFL game, having missed most of this season with a kidney injury, finished with two important goals.
By now though, Brayshaw and Caleb Serong had settled and taken control of the midfield.
The pair combined for 65 possessions.
Scoreboard
FREMANTLE 0.1 4.3 7.5 11.7 (73)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 5.5 6.6 7.11 8.12 (60)
ELBOROUGH’S BEST Dockers: Serong, Brayshaw, Pearce, Walters, Young, Ryan. Bulldogs: Dunkley, Bontempelli, Daniel, Macrae, B Smith, Hunter.
GOALS Dockers: Walters 3; Lobb 2, Amiss 2; Brayshaw, Serong, Logue, O’Driscoll. Bulldogs: Bontempelli 2, Johannisen 2; Darcy, Weightman, Dunkley, R Smith.
INJURIES Dockers: O’Driscoll (ankle). Bulldogs: Johannisen (hamstring).
UMPIRES: Donlon, Power, Williamson.
VENUE 58,982 at Optus Stadium.
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