{"id":888932,"date":"2026-09-12T04:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888932\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T04:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T04:08:16","slug":"fremantle-dockers-are-new-flag-favourites-with-bookies-but-flight-prices-to-sydney-for-preliminary-final-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888932\/","title":{"rendered":"Fremantle Dockers are new flag favourites with bookies, but flight prices to Sydney for preliminary final soar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fremantle have been re-installed as premiership favourites by bookmakers after their stunning semi final victory over Geelong on Friday night set up a preliminary final against Sydney at the SCG.<\/p>\n

And airlines have been quick to dramatically increase prices for flights from Perth to Sydney as passionate Fremantle fans look for ways to follow their team around the country.<\/p>\n

The Dockers\u2019 premiership hopes were in serious jeopardy after they lost to Hawthorn last week but the 18.12 (120) to 16.10 (106) victory over Geelong at Optus Stadium has turned the season on its head.<\/p>\n

TAB Touch slashed Fremantle\u2019s premiership price to a $3.20 favourite, compared to Hawthorn at $3.40, despite the Dockers being at $5.50 last Friday.<\/p>\n

Sydney will be missing six of their best 23 players after Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordan and Riley Bice were suspended by the club for the rest of the season after their off-field scandal in round 24. Then they lost captain Callum Mills to a knee injury in the qualifying final.<\/p>\n

The Dockers are $1.62 favourites to beat Sydney. The Swans are paying $2.30.<\/p>\n

\"FremantleCamera IconFremantle celebrate. Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir was refusing to get caught up in the narrative that Sydney are a weaker team because of the players who won\u2019t be available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched what they did against Brisbane. Clearly, they didn\u2019t seem like they missed any of those players. They played a fantastic, selfless brand of footy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go over there as underdogs, and they\u2019ll be really confident after their win against Brisbane. They\u2019ll be heavy favourites on their home deck, but we\u2019ll go over and give it our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The optimism for Fremantle has also seen direct flights to Sydney increased to crazy prices. The average cost of a direct flight from Perth to Sydney with Virgin Australia on Thursday is $1264. The same flights cost an average of $473 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The average cost to fly with Qantas on Thursday is $1216 compared to $693 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Geelong coach Chris Scott admitted he felt the winner of Friday night\u2019s game would be well placed to win the premiership, and his belief in Fremantle has now increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a feeling going into the game that the winner of this game would have a really good chance. And I\u2019m probably more confident of that now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Longmuir won\u2019t allow his players to get carried away with Fremantle playing in the club\u2019s first preliminary final since 2015. The Dockers finished the home and away season on top of the ladder and are attempting to win a historic first premiership.<\/p>\n

\"JustinCamera IconJustin Longmuir and Shai Bolton. Credit: Jackson Flindell\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Longmuir remains far from satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job\u2019s not done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke about it last week. We were in similar position to what we were on Thursday before the Hawthorn game. We were one win away from a prelim because we gave ourselves the second chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great. We played a really good brand of footy and should get a lot of confidence out of that. But the job\u2019s not done. So we have to go 1-0 again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle have been re-installed as premiership favourites by bookmakers after their stunning semi final victory over Geelong on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10124,588,85],"class_list":["post-888932","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-fremantle-dockers","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888932","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=888932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}