Fremantle great Nat Fyfe says he still ends his AFL career content, despite not winning the premiership he so desperately craved, and he\u2019s optimistic the current group have \u201cfive or six\u201d more bites at the cherry.<\/p>\n
Fyfe\u2019s career came to a close on Saturday night when Fremantle suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss to Gold Coast in a pulsating elimination final at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Dockers led by six points with less than two minutes remaining, but a Mac Andrew goal with 72 seconds to go followed by a David Swallow behind with just nine seconds left on the clock sealed the 11.14 (80) to 12.7 (79) win for Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
Fyfe was given a guard of honour after the final siren, with skipper Alex Pearce and Luke Ryan chairing him off.<\/p>\n
In an honest and emotional interview after the match, Fyfe revealed he had been in some doubt for the match after rolling his ankle at training on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re at my age and with the scar tissue, a small ankle injury can turn into a pretty major thing, but it wasn\u2019t too bad,\u201d Fyfe said.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old won two Brownlow medals, three best and fairest awards and three All-Australians during his decorated 248-game career, as well as captaining Fremantle.<\/p>\n
But team success eluded him, with the 15-point loss to Hawthorn in the 2013 grand final the closest Fyfe got.<\/p>\n
Fyfe was philosophical after his flag dream ended on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I needed anything else from the game,\u201d Fyfe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all want to win premierships. I do have some contentedness that I tried everything and gave absolutely everything I could to the club and evolved myself along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways, maybe my journey it was more important for me not to win than to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that\u2019s fitting – the game does not give up its rewards very easily and there\u2019s a lot more times you finish a season heartbroken than the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to get back and actually be involved in this game this year … I\u2019m really grateful I got to play in another final again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fremantle have featured in finals just twice since 2015 \u2013 in 2022 and 2025.<\/p>\n
But with the bulk of the talent-laden squad still in their early-to-mid 20s, Fyfe sees a bright future ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve only lost three games of the last 14, we\u2019ve learned to win on the road, we\u2019ve given ourselves every chance of evolving the way you\u2019d like a list to,\u201d Fyfe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we genuinely have got the calibre of players in the right profile to have five or six bites at winning a premiership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fyfe has been plagued by injuries in the latter part of his glittering career.<\/p>\n
This year alone he dealt with knee, hamstring and calf issues, admitting that he thought he may not be able to come back on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game tried many different times to tell me the end of the road was near and so I walk away knowing this was definitely the right time,\u201d Fyfe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I came to a point last year where I felt like I\u2019d turned every stone, given absolutely everything I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the story went from there was out of my hands. Hopefully I get some closure and peace of mind that this part of my journey with Fremantle \u2013 I did everything I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI finish disappointed in some ways because of the way this season went. But those memories will eventually turn into fond ones for what\u2019s been an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s next for Fyfe, a man who has endured 25 surgeries across his career?<\/p>\n
\u201cA period of rest,\u201d Fyfe said.<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle great Nat Fyfe says he still ends his AFL career content, despite not winning the premiership he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-123497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}