{"id":65810,"date":"2025-08-13T19:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/65810\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T19:23:16","slug":"city-of-fremantle-locals-hold-off-on-dockers-celebration-for-now-with-finals-still-yet-to-be-finalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/65810\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Fremantle: Locals hold off on Dockers celebration for now with finals still yet to be finalised"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dockers fans may have AFL finals in their eyes but the City of Fremantle is still hedging its bets.<\/p>\n

The Dockers rose to the top four \u2014 and a double chance in finals \u2014 after holding out against Port Adelaide last weekend.<\/p>\n

The city council recently asked staff to formalise celebrating the Dockers\u2019 participation in the AFL and AFLW finals series and grand final \u2014 as well as other local sport successes \u2014 as part of its draft economic strategy 2025-2030.<\/p>\n

But the competition for September finals action is so tight that the Dockers could yet finish outside of the top eight if they don\u2019t maintain winning form and the port city\u2019s local government is not yet ready to commit to planning a party.<\/p>\n

Past celebrations of the AFL Dockers making the finals included painting the median of the cappuccino strip purple, live-streaming the game on a big screen outdoors and painting the Fremantle Football Club\u2019s logo on the grass slope of the Walyalup Civic Centre.<\/p>\n

\"CrowdsCamera IconCrowds gather at The Federal Hotel in Fremantle to watch the AFL semi final match between the Collingwood Magpies and Fremantle Dockers. Credit: Jackson Flindell\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge mused in a Facebook post this week about the launch of the Dockers\u2019 AFLW season about a double premiership.<\/p>\n

She was less confident at the time of the council\u2019s party-planning decision last month, saying she was now \u201cpetrified\u201d the Dockers would lose the rest of their games, \u201cas they did the last time we bought any purple paint\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I shall trust that that is superstition, not logic, and that they\u2019re doing very, very well, so fingers crossed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Dockers\u2019 six-point win over Port Adelaide was their fifth victory this season where they\u2019ve had to fight back from a three-quarter time deficit to claim the four premiership points.<\/p>\n

It is the most in a single season since cross-town rivals West Coast accomplished the same feat in 2006 on their way to a third premiership in club history.<\/p>\n

\"PatrickCamera IconPatrick Voss of the Dockers with fans after the win during the 2025 AFL Round 22 match between the Port Adelaide Power and the Fremantle Dockers at Optus Stadium on August 9, 2025. Credit: Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Whether the Dockers make the finals could come down to the last week of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe race for top eight is as tight as it\u2019s ever been,\u201d The Nightly sport opinion writer Sophie Gannon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriday night\u2019s game against Brisbane is as big of a game that this club can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cA win would see Freo in contention for a top four place, but a loss will leave them in a position where they rely on winning against Bulldogs at Marvel to ensure they even make the top eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough having won 11 out of the past 12 games, Freo must be careful as they\u2019re making a habit of playing three average quarters and then making a strong comeback in the fourth, doing this five out of the past six weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll need to play all four quarters to contend against the best in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fremantle\u2019s finals hopes last year died in a defeat to Port Adelaide in the last game of the season after Carlton\u2019s dramatic loss to St Kilda had left the door open for them to make the top eight.<\/p>\n

Another opportunity for partying lies with Fremantle\u2019s AFLW side, who are expected to be genuine premiership contenders this year.<\/p>\n

The Dockers kick off their season against Port Adelaide on Sunday, August 17. The returns of Ange Stannett \u2014 who missed her entire first year as captain with an anterior cruciate ligament injury \u2014 and Kiara Bowers after pregnancy have been a massive boost to Fremantle a year after they returned to the finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dockers fans may have AFL finals in their eyes but the City of Fremantle is still hedging its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10992,10124,46,8080,588,85,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-65810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-fremantle","14":"tag-fremantle-dockers","15":"tag-perth","16":"tag-south","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65810","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=65810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}