{"id":93697,"date":"2025-08-25T03:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T03:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93697\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T03:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T03:05:07","slug":"andrew-brayshaw-says-everyone-had-written-off-fremantle-dockers-from-making-finals-round-24-win-over-western-bulldogs-justin-longmuir-guts-up-cup-dislocated-finger-interview-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93697\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Brayshaw says everyone had written off Fremantle Dockers from making finals, Round 24 win over Western Bulldogs, Justin Longmuir, Guts Up Cup, dislocated finger, interview, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fremantle sat the biggest exam of their season on Sunday and passed with flying colours, outlasting the Bulldogs to seal a long-awaited finals return.<\/a><\/p>\n

24 hours later, superstar midfielder Andrew Brayshaw will face his own paper \u2014 a commerce test back at university.<\/p>\n

One result carries a club\u2019s September hopes, the other worth a modest 12.5% weighting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve got a uni test tomorrow that I\u2019ll have to lock in for \u2014 no extension there! I\u2019ll lock in for that tomorrow, so I\u2019ll probably do some study on the flight back,\u201d Brayshaw told foxfooty.com.au in the changerooms post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got two units to go, and then I graduate. This one\u2019s just (worth) 12.5%, I should knock it over pretty easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like Brayshaw\u2019s commerce test, there were no extensions on Fremantle\u2019s deadline heading into their blockbuster Round 24 clash.<\/p>\n

The critics of the club and coach Justin Longmuir were at times deafening, but in some ways, it fuelled the Dockers for their do-or-die encounter that eventually broke their three-year finals drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had written us off, which is good \u2014 we like being the underdogs,\u201d Brayshaw said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve actually travelled really well and played some really good away games, so internally we were really confident. We learned a lot from the Brisbane loss last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, everyone said we were going to lose, so it was just good to come out here and outside the first quarter, play our style of footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was saying that last week was Fyfey\u2019s last home game. But up until the Brisbane loss, we had won 10 of our last 11, so it\u2019s funny how quickly everyone can write you off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Brayshaw of Fremantle handballs under pressure from Marcus Bontempelli of the Bulldogs during the Round 24 AFL match between Western Bulldogs and Fremantle Dockers at Marvel Stadium on August 24, 2025 (Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs, who will finish the home-and-away season with the most points for of any team in the competition, held the upper hand throughout the first quarter on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Longmuir\u2019s side looked a far cry from their best football, but a run of eight unanswered goals and a goalless second stanza from the Bulldogs flipped the game on its head in the Dockers\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defence was a bit sloppy in the first quarter. They (the Bulldogs) sliced us up through the middle, so we made sure we tightened that up,\u201d Brayshaw continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was us against everyone else … they had everything to play for as well, so we knew it was going to be a desperate and physical game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to back ourselves with ball-in-hand as well … our ball movement takes care of itself. In that second quarter, we were super strong in the corridor, and then the exciting stuff happens after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud of the boys, and now we get a home final which is f*cking awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dockers down Dogs to book finals footy | 02:27<\/p>\n

The co-vice-captain, who has the 10th-longest active streak in the AFL with 94 consecutive games, had a brief moment of concern when he dislocated his finger on the cusp of quarter time.<\/p>\n

He went to the bench for several minutes for medical treatment before running out the game with heavy strapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never dislocated a finger, until today. It was more just scary to look at, to be honest,\u201d said the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual injury didn\u2019t hurt too much, but when I looked down, I thought: \u2018Wow, I haven\u2019t seen my finger quite like that. But the doc popped it straight back in and strapped it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be pretty sore on Monday I reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pending Wednesday night\u2019s home-and-away season finale, between Gold Coast and Essendon, the Dockers will play one of Hawthorn or the Suns at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle sat the biggest exam of their season on Sunday and passed with flying colours, outlasting the Bulldogs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28952,63,689,16716,69390,69395,69389,69393,69397,10124,2105,2485,69391,43,38433,27723,69394,69388,10400,69396,647,44,677,69392,701,3247,69398,69399,41,39,42,40,660,698],"class_list":["post-93697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-andrew-brayshaw","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ball-movement","tag-commerce-test","tag-deadline-heading","tag-dislocated-finger","tag-finals-litmus","tag-flying-colours","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-guarantee-finals-football","tag-headlines","tag-home-final","tag-home-and-away-season","tag-home-and-away-season-finale","tag-jordan-croft","tag-justin-longmuir","tag-long-awaited-finals-return","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-oceania","tag-possible-finals-suspension","tag-queensland","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-superstar-midfielder","tag-three-year-finals-drought","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93697","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=93697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}