Fremantle Dockers: Lachie Schultz and Liam Henry departures can be traced back to contentious Lachie Neale decision

The Dockers continue an uncomfortable trend that can be traced back to Lachie Neale‘s trade to Brisbane, writes MARK DUFFIELD.

The Liam Henry and Lachie Schultz trades are the latest instances where the Dockers have bowed to player demands. Picture: Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images

When Fremantle contemplates sliding door moments in club history, current staffers often look back on the trade that sent Lachie Neale to Brisbane.

They ponder: If only the club had just taken its draft picks after that trade, added Ben King and Connor Rozee to the list with picks five and six in the 2018 draft instead of bringing in Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb and drafting for Sam Sturt.

But there is a different way to look at that trade.

What if the Dockers hadn’t done it at all?

On Tuesday club list manager David Walls, who has done a very good job of building a bank of talent at Freo that other clubs are actually keen on, expressed his frustration at the pattern of required – and often contracted players – leaving the club.

But it is a pattern Fremantle helped establish when they let Neale walk.

What if they had simply told Neale, who had just won the club’s best and fairest for the second time and had a year to run on his contract, that he wouldn’t be traded?

How different would the club’s recent history look if they had just said no?

Lachie Neale requested a trade from the Dockers at the end of the 2018 season. Picture: AAP Image/Richard Wainwright

The trades of Lachie Schultz to Collingwood and Liam Henry to St Kilda this week continue an uncomfortable trend of Dockers – more than a few of whom have had contracts – not only wanting to leave the club, but getting their way.

It has raised questions about the club environment and culture. It certainly hasn’t helped Justin Longmuir and his team’s trajectory, which was pointed up the ladder in his first three seasons at the helm before plunging from sixth to 14th this season.

Maybe the biggest problem for Fremantle is that they are too agreeable – especially when it comes to releasing players under contract.

Aside from the club’s one clear list management error – the failure to keep the cheap and well performed Blake Acres – when viewed on a case-by-case basis it becomes clear that most of Fremantle’s departures had different and legitimate reasons for going.

Lloyd Meek, Darcy Tucker and Joel Hamling left in search of opportunity. Griffin Logue left for more money and a spot in North Melbourne’s back six. The Dockers couldn’t guarantee him a spot ahead of Brennan Cox and Alex Pearce as a tall defender and they couldn’t pay him more than Cox and Pearce to match North’s offer.

Adam Cerra left to go home – as the club feared he would. Jesse Hogan left because he couldn’t stand the exposure in the Perth football fishbowl as he battled anxiety. Rory Lobb was a bit different. He tried to leave, was told to stay and had a career best season, then got his wish to leave only to see his output drop by a third at the Western Bulldogs.

But the departures had something in common.

Even those contracted felt that, if they pushed hard enough, the door to leave would swing open for them just as it did for Neale back in 2018, for Hogan at the end of 2020, for Lobb at the end of 2022 and now for Schultz this week.

Lachie Schultz is the latest Docker to successfully request a trade from Fremantle. Picture: Martin Keep/Getty Images

Would they have been as confident if they were trying to leave Geelong, renowned for playing hard ball at the trade table?

Would the players have been treated as kindly at Collingwood, who have practically thrown Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Brodie Grundy out the door regardless of contract status in recent off-seasons?

Schultz cited family reasons for heading home but chose a specific club where it is understood that a contract of at least five years was on offer to him. No player in recent history has had more worthy family reasons for wanting to go home than Tim Kelly but the Cats had no hesitation in pricing him beyond West Coast’s reach at the end of 2018, then driving an even harder bargain despite there being no contract to hold him at the end of 2019.

In 2018, Neale won Fremantle’s best and fairest for the second time, with David Mundy second and Nathan Fyfe third. In 2019 Fyfe and Neale finished first and third in the Brownlow – just at different clubs. Mundy was still playing good football in 2021 and 2022 let alone 2019 and Andrew Brayshaw was emerging behind them. And if the Dockers had kept Neale and just took pick six in that draft – their pick based on ladder position, they could still have taken Ben King.

Would Neale have still wanted to leave at the end of 2019?

People close to the now dual Brownlow Medal winner have their doubts.

Meeting the trade request blew up a Neale, David Mundy and Nathan Fyfe midfield performing at the peak of their powers. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

The Dockers’ major motivation for letting Neale go is that they wanted a tall forward and they viewed Hogan as the player they needed. Hogan came and went despite still being in contract. Rory Lobb came with him and went, despite still being in contract. Now Schultz, also still in contract, has gone.

Geelong might have let Jordan Clark go mid-contract but only after he had tried and failed to leave the year before and been given certain undertakings by the club and its coaches that he and his management felt the Cats fell short on. Even then, he wasn’t given up without a fight and the Dockers coughed up a second round draft pick for a player the Cats didn’t have in their best 22.

Fremantle got reasonable compensation for Schultz – although how reasonable will depend on how well Collingwood goes defending their 2023 flag. The Dockers may not have been compensated as well next season under the AFL’s mystifying free agency compensation rules.

The compensation would have been geared to what Collingwood were offering and Collingwood might not have been motivated to offer as much to a free agent as a person they were trying to get to break a contract.

But there is a pattern firmly established now at Fremantle. Every player with a trade request has reason to believe his wish will be granted, based on recent history.

The exit door is open.

It might be time to kick it shut and lock it and make the next player requesting a trade fight his way out.

Originally published as Fremantle Dockers: Lachie Schultz and Liam Henry departures can be traced back to contentious Lachie Neale decision