Fremantle FC (AFL)

Fremantle is an existing club that plays in the Australian Football League, and has not played in any other competition. The club was formed in 1994 and has not won any premierships.
== Formation ==
Originally, a bid by South Fremantle and East Fremantle was proposed in 1987, but the WAFL had ensured exclusive rights at that time to the West Coast Eagles. Those rights were released after the Eagles won their first premiership, but the Western Australian Football Commission still didn't like the proposal. However the idea of a Fremantle based team had merit and in a separate effort a new club was formed and announced as operational on July 12, 1994 with the presentation of it's colours and nickname of the Dockers.
== First season ==
The Dockers made their on field debut on February 24, 1995 in the pre season competition losing to St Kilda at the East Fremantle Oval. Their debut for premiership points was on April 1 when they lost to Richmond by just 5 points at the MCG. It only took a couple of weeks for Fremantle to win it's first game, over Fitzroy at Whitten Oval by 43 points. It was in Round 7 that the Dockers played the first ever Western Derby against West Coast, with the Eagles winning by 85 points. The Dockers would also lose the second Derby in the final round by 53 points, concluding their debut season with eight wins and fourteen losses and finishing in 13th position in the sixteen team competition.
== 1996-1999 ==
It was a struggle for the Dockers for the rest of the 1990's. In 1996 they also finished 13th but with seven wins and fifteen losses. Their seventh win was the last game in the AFL for Fitzroy, played at Subiaco. Fremantle treated the departing club with the fullest respect while winning by 86 points. In 1997 there was an improvement as the Dockers were part of a solid group of teams on ten wins and missed the finals by half a game. It was a 12th place finish. But the next two seasons were poor, finishing 15th in both seasons. In 1998 they did win seven games, but in 1999 they had their worst return so far with just five wins despite the change of coach from Gerard Neesham to Damina Drum. There was one highlight for the season though - the Dockers winning the Western Derby for the first time, defeating the Eagles by 47 points in a surprise result.
== 2000's ==
Fremantle continued to struggle into the new century hitting rock bottom in 2001 winning the wooden spoon after finishing twelfth in 2000 with nine wins. 2001's two victories were late in the season and both were over finalists in Hawthorn and Adelaide. Both were under caretaker coach Ben Allan after Drum was sacked upon the 10th loss on the trot. The appointment of Chris Connolly heralded hope for 2002 with a slowish start finishing thirteenth with nine wins. But in 2003 the Dockers broke through and made their first finals series with 14 wins and finished fifth earning them the right to host their first final at Subiaco. Essendon though spoiled the party and the Dockers slipped to ninth missing the finals by a game in 2004. In 2005 another season with 11 wins resulted in a tenth place finish and half a game outisde the finals.
In 2006 Fremantle were lucky to finish as high as third, thanks to the events of Sirengate. This season would be the first where the Dockers won both Western Derbies. The trip to Football Park when it should have been a finals Western Derby hurt the Dockers and they were defeated by Adelaide. They bounced back with a win over Melbourne at Subiaco but Fremantle's season ended in the preliminary final with the loss to Sydney. Despite losing both Derbies, West Coast would go on to win the flag. In 2007 Chris Connolly resigned and was replaced by Mark Harvey as the Dockers slipped to eleventh with ten wins. The next two seasons would be poor for the Dockers only winning six games in both seasons and finishing fourteenth both times. The one positive was that during this period Fremantle would win every Western Derby.
== 2010's ==
The Dockers returned to the finals in 2010 finishing sixth and scored a good 30 point win over Hawthorn, but they ran into Geelong in the semi final and were given a ten plus goal hiding. This led to a slip to eleventh in 2011 but Fremantle were back in 2012 finishing seventh. An upset elimination final win over reigning premiers Geelong inspired some confidence but that was followed by a 10 point loss to Adelaide in the semi final to put the brakes on that season.
But in 2013 things looked up when the Dockers finished third and they won the qualifying final over Geelong at Kardinia Park in what was seen as an upset to get the week off. The preliminary final saw Fremantle manage to defeat Sydney and the Dockers were in their first ever grand final where they faced Hawthorn. At half time it wasn't looking good as Fremantle only kicked one goal and trailed by 23 points when it could easily have been more. A third quarter fightback raised hope, but the Hawks steadied in the final term to effect a 15 point defeat for the Dockers.
Fremantle recovered and finished fourth in 2014, only to go out in straights set courtesy of Sydney and Port Adelaide. But in 2015 it was looking very promising when the Dockers finished on top of the ladder. This was after they rested players in the final round with the permission of the AFL (leading consequently to the week off for all clubs between the last round and the finals) and they started with a 9 point win over an inaccurate Sydney for the week off. But they ran into Hawthorn again and were beaten in the preliminary final.
That set of a period of struggle for Fremantle who dropped to sixteenth in 2016. They then finished fourteenth in 2017 and 2018 and finished the decade with a finish in thirteenth in 2019.
== 2020 ==
A loss to Essendon in the opening round of 2020 didn't auger well for the Dockers before the season was suspended until mid June. Fremantle lost another three games on the trot before finally breaking the duck with a win over Adelaide. That slow start though left the Dockers battling to get into calculations and by the end of the season they ended up in twelfth place.
== 2021 ==
Fremantle lost their opening game of the season Melbourne but followed that with a strong win over West Sydney. A loss to Carlton didn't help but then three straight wins had the Dockers in the eight. However that was followed by three straight losses. From that point on Fremantle had trouble stringing wins together. They managed to sneak into the eight again twice but a round 21 thrashing by Brisbane ended their season despite their first win in a Western Derby the next week since 2015. They finished eleventh.
== 2022 ==
The Dockers started the season with a win and a loss before getting onto a roll with six wins in a row to be right in contention in second place on the ladder. They were put back in their seat in an upset by Gold Coast and another loss to Collingwood to fall to fourth, but they rebounded in spectacular fashion by handing undefeated top side and reigning premier Melbourne their first defeat for the season. Two more wins heading into the bye had them in third spot.
The next four rounds went two wins and two losses keeping Fremantle in the top four, but then a draw with Richmond had them fifth. That was followed by Melbourne getting their revenge and the Dockers were sixth with three rounds to go. They came home with a wet sail with three wins, but other results failed to go their way and they finished the home and away season in fifth place, missing the double chance.
The first final was against the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle got the win by 13 points, but their season then ended at the hands of Collingwood by 20 points.
== 2023 ==
Season 2023 began badly with two straight losses. The Dockers recovered to score a strong win in the Western Derby but they couldn't get a roll going until round 8 when they then started a four game winning streak putting them in ninth place going into the bye. But seven rounds after that Fremantle had only added one more win and had plummeted to fifteenth. Despite an effort and a record thumping in the return Western Derby they only managed three more wins to end the season in fourteenth place.
== Reserves ==
When the Dockers entered the AFL competition, the players who didn't make the senior team played across the clubs in the WAFL. This changed in 1999 when the team affiliated with South Fremantle, but in 2000 the previous arrangement resumed. This lasted until 2014 when the Dockers entered into an alignment with Peel.
Category:Australian FL clubs