Do we all need to go guts up in the Bahamas for a while? To be fair to the Gold Coast Suns, if we’d gotten out of jail we would’ve been charged with stealing. Time to Restump Podcast the 1-point heartbreak.

Well that stung and it may have done irreparable damage to our souls. While Freo fans didn’t buy into The West’s revenue generating clickbait idiocy with their ‘easy Freo final' back page, we all obviously had high hopes of extending the season.

However, we got Sunburnt so we bow out of season 2025 with a what would've been, could've been, maybe should've been but didn’t quite end up being, result.

It was a typical Freo roller coaster season ride as we went from eating the chocolates in the frying pan, to sucking on boiled lollies in the fire. We were a basket case by round 8, finals bound a few games later.

We’ve done the full suite of emotions since Saturday night, but after the mental anguish, pondering the reasons why and the reasons why not, and internally asking ourselves the irrationally instinctive rhetorical questions like, how did this happen, who do we need and who needs to go… we arrive at some sort of pragmatic peace.

The basic long and simple short of it is, the Suns were simply better for longer. Now obviously, the superiority for a single point margin time period is all but negligible. But the soul-destroying reality is, that's all that is required.

Really other than sporadic poor decision making, some maybe finals frenzied forced skill errors and several less than ideal forward 50 entries, we didn’t do too much wrong and the team will benefit from the experience.

If you had to pinpoint it without hanging individuals, we’d probably note the 2nd quarter with 5 minutes remaining on the clock. In that period of red time rampage, the Suns managed 6 inside 50s and put 4 goals 1 on the board, while our Freo folk failed to trouble the scorers from 4 inside 50s.

Must be said though, generating just 7 scores from 29 inside 50s for a half, tells you you’re doing plenty right, but the important part catastrophically wrong.

We couldn’t get it done for Fyfey and now any on field remnants of the 2013 grand final era are gone. However, we let Nat go gradually which helped ease the pain of goodbye.

And while we couldn’t get it done for Fyfe, if you can distance yourself from the pain of Saturday night and view it with momentary detachment, it’s hard not to have a little smile for the Gold Coast Suns and David Swallow.

We know far too well what they have been through and for them to have their first ever draftee kick the winning score in his and his team’s first ever final, in what is his retirement year, it’s a great story and a wonderful football moment.

Ok, enough of that nonsense. So, putting the purple hat back on, we’ve just put away a 16 win season, we’ve got one of the league's youngest and most inexperienced lists that's just experienced a final. We’ve got a collective with a non-traditional professional Fremantle mindset, we’ve got the right guy in charge and we’re on a trend heading in a north east direction. We haven’t even cracked the window yet! We’re only warming up!

We’re a bit light on for detail and analysis here so we’ll dig much deeper on the pod and relive and re-visit those irrational instinctive questions.

So, if you’re struggling to come to terms with the result and managing the fall out is too heavy a burden, well many ears make light listening, so come in for the conversation. We'll talk through the temporary trauma, absolve the anguish, make some mental mending milestones and procure the pragmatic perspective ready to purple back up and go again in about 6 months’ time.

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It's been a while between purple pints. But you get the feeling we're going to be well hydrated over the next decade. Time to Restump preview podcast the start of our September quest.

Does this September participation feeling ever diminish? Or has the drought and the heartbreak of often orchestrating our own demise over the journey created this exhilaration? Not sure, but something tells me given our history, we'll never take the sight of September for granted.

It's time to put away the pitchforks and remove the hands from the holsters of those who were gunning for the club and coach.

We haven't found ourselves in finals facilitated by favourable results falling around us. We forced our way in winning 12 of our last 14, many against fierce foes. And when it came down to the final affair, the do or die clash against the dogs, we were formidably emphatic.

So, where does it position us? Past results now count for nothing and have no bearing on what is to come.

We rightly go in Saturday night as favourites, but if we have any hint of forgone conclusionary mindsets, the Suns will seize on it.

While there's a dash of relief making finals, the pressure on Saturday night is all on us. The Suns are September debutants, so they'd have a weight-off-the-shoulders feeling and an element of freedom about them, which can be a positive or a negative. Reaching finals for the first time, they may feel the job is done and subconsciously play accordingly. But they may also have that dangerous now 'nothing to lose' mentality and play unrestrained with reckless abandon.

However, lets not forget they have a 3-time premiership ‘been there done that’ coach at the helm. Damien Hardwick won't have the satisfied mindset and he'll pull all the psychological levers to ensure his players don't either.

Apart from the obvious, both teams have additional reasons to perform. For us, while it is his final appearance in WA, this could be the final time Nat Fyfe, the generational player, who won himself and us two Brownlow medals, who regularly carried out club through some dark times, graces us with his on-field presence if we lose.

And for Gold Coast, their club's first ever draftee and co-captain, David Swallow, has called time on his career and goes out in his and the Sun's debut finals campaign.

Both players could have abandoned their perennially unsuccessful clubs at times and there were no shortage of options. But they dug in and showed a rare loyalty at the expense of potential premiership expense, until now.

Interestingly, Nat Fyfe and David Swallow both are West Aussies, one club career players and both currently sit on 247 games, providing a chance to play a deserved 250.

There are a host of heartstring tugging motivations for both sides regarding these two magnificent players to draw upon, should added inspiration be required.

While we should just concentrate on the now, if we were to pull off the unthinkable, every game from here is an elimination final. And should we get to and plant our purple flag on the promised land, taking into account our elimination final against the Dogs, we'd be the first club in history to win the premiership from outside the 8!

We've been set up well by the club, the coaching staff and recruiters. They've created the framework for success and now the opportunity is there for the players.

Home and away and finals footy are two different bags, so are we ready as a group? Is the 'why not us' cliché fitting? Maybe, maybe not, but Saturday night is the first step to finding out.

There's still 48 hours or so until bouncedown! So, if you're on edge and dealing with some purple anxiety

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It’s often said “A wrong King still believes his crown makes him right.” Give it up Kingy, there’s no place left to hide. JL has got your number! Time to Restump Podcast Freo’s magnificent September securing victory against the dauntless Dogs.

There was barely an institution that didn’t write us off. The media, the footballing world, the bookies and my postman gave us no hope. But why? Why was so much analytical weight and judgment placed upon the loss to the Brisbane Lions a week bacl? Was our previous 3 months invisible? Did the pundits not even bother to watch the Fox Footy mini’s?

Justin Longmuir got on the front foot though as he was having none of it and he wasn’t shy in letting them know. However, let’s hope they all double down and write us off again in 2 weeks’ time.

In real time, we’d all be lying if we said we didn’t harbour some minor concerns half way through that first quarter. But we’d seen that movie before several times in recent months and, more often than not, it had a favourable twist.

Stop, take your hat off and give the defensive collective an acknowledging nod because we were able to build that win on it’s ability and relentless efforts to weather the Dog’s high pressure, 19 inside fifty storm. It kept us in the game when others couldn’t. The individuals were remarkable. No one does what our defensive delegation did to Sam Darcy!

Depending on how you view it, its either worrying or pleasing seeing Andy Brayshaw and Caleb Serong combine for just a 5 possession first quarter. Worrying because they got destroyed, but pleasing because we were still able to win centre clearance for the quarter and set up four scoring chances. Hayden Young, take a bow!

The Dogs did well at trying to rattle our cages early with their pressure but we dealt with it, we regrouped at quarter time and then we let go with a scintillating period of footy that saw us put an uninterrupted run of 8 goals on the board.

Sure, the Dogs have some defensive deficiencies but our forwards were phenomenal, showing no mercy in exploiting the advantage. Everyone got their unhygienic lick of the what would now be germ riddled ice-cream. But even contracting covid was an acceptable risk if it meant seeing Jye Amiss in the embryonic stage of a return to some serious form!

If you put your hat back on, can you please remove it once more as we have a moment of respect and marvel at Murphy Reid yet again? Everything he touches turns to gold… or rather goal. It’s not too often that a first-year player becomes irreplaceable and a vital cog in the team wheel. It’s done, pull your dress down Mary, the shows over. All bets are off… just give him the rising star medal!

And while our hata are still off, give a nod of appreciation to Bailey Banfield who has reinvented himself in a meaningful way.

While we appeared to be cruising to victory, the Dogs are too good a team to not mount a comeback. On the back of the magnificent Marcus Bontempelli, he dragged them back to somewhat within striking distance late in the final term. Yes, Ok, a nerve or two crept in, but we’re not that same old Fremantle team anymore. We weren’t letting this September securing victory slip through our fingers. Bring on September!

We didn’t put too much weight on last week’s loss to the Brisbane Lions and their win over the Hawks justified our position. So, likewise, given the Dog’s record against top eight teams, we’re not getting carried away with the win over them either. Having said that, it doesn’t mean we’re not bouncing off the walls excited about being part of September this year!

So, you know what to do. If you’re foraging for a fistful more of Freo fanfare, don yo

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