{"id":907662,"date":"2026-09-27T18:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907662\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:38:34","slug":"afl-grand-final-what-fremantle-dockers-players-coaches-and-executives-said-after-heartbreaking-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907662\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL grand final: What Fremantle Dockers players, coaches and executives said after heartbreaking loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Fremantle\u2019s premiership dream turned into a grand final nightmare, here is what every Dockers player, coach or executive who spoke had to say.<\/p>\n

Captain Alex Pearce<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing I know about this group and this club, we won\u2019t give up and we\u2019ll fight and be back here again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlexCamera IconAlex Pearce. Credit: Cameron Spencer\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Coach Justin Longmuir<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of the way we competed all day, but there\u2019s no sugar-coating the result. It\u2019s so disappointing, and it\u2019s devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JustinCamera IconJustin Longmuir. Credit: Darrian Traynor\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Norm Smith medallist Shai Bolton<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honoured to get the Norm Smith, but I\u2019m gutted for our boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShaiCamera IconShai Bolton. Credit: Darrian Traynor\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vice-captain Caleb Serong<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d much rather be in the game and in the fight and out here today and feeling these emotions and be out here today, but it\u2019s shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CalebCamera IconCaleb Serong. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vice-captain Andrew Brayshaw<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no doubt in my mind that we\u2019re going to learn from this, and we\u2019re going to be a stronger team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndrewCamera IconAndrew Brayshaw. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Head of football Joe Brierty<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, this game doesn\u2019t give up its rewards easily, and we fell short, and that hurts. But we\u2019ll take our time to reflect on that and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoeCamera IconJoe Brierty. Credit: David Callow<\/p>\n

President Chris Sutherland<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our fans like (Wharfie Time), and what happened today after it doesn\u2019t mean will happen tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChrisCamera IconChris Sutherland. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Retiring forward Sam Switkowski<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m clearly devastated with the result, but I actually also just feel so grateful and proud of this football club.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamCamera IconSam Switkowski. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

All Australian centre-half-forward Josh Treacy<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get better. I\u2019ve got to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoshCamera IconJosh Treacy. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Forward Pat Voss<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, \u2018Whatever happens today, I am not going to be defined by being a premiership player or not\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PatCamera IconPat Voss. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Utility Corey Wagner<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we probably handled the last two to three minutes as good as we should have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CoreyCamera IconCorey Wagner. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Defender Oscar McDonald<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can go one way or the other, and I dare say it will be the right way we choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OscarCamera IconOscar McDonald. Credit: Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Midfielder Neil Erasmus<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a pretty devastating loss, but I thought we played really well for most of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NeilCamera IconNeil Erasmus. Credit: Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Fremantle\u2019s premiership dream turned into a grand final nightmare, here is what every Dockers player, coach or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907663,"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-907662","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\/907662","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=907662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}