What's all this commotion about the SCG surface? It shouldn’t be a problem for our beloved Freo Dockers as we’ve been skating on thin ice for thirty years! Time to Restump Podcast the shifting sands show against the Swannies.

It’s a sad time having to accept Sonny Walters on the big stage is no more. We all knew it was coming, but while the decision to call it a day hadn't been made, we were able to live in hope. Our denial dwelling has now been extinguished and the reality of it, we must live in.

However, let's not mourn his football passing, but rather be grateful he existed in our era. As we all know, the game is bigger than the individual, so the show must go on.

Sunday, we meet the Swans for the 2nd time this season and, for some reason, it makes me a little nervous. We should’ve beaten them back in round 2 but we found a way to avoid carrying the heavy 4-point burden.

The reality is we are a much better football team now than we were then, so we shouldn't be fearful. Like last week against the Saints, we need some retribution, albeit with more of a 4 points primary objective.

Worryingly though, the Bloods are on the improve. It feels they're finding their way back to that hard combative tough to beat familiar Swans outfit and, on top of that, they've won 13 of 20 encounters against us at the SCG.

Ruckman Brodie Grundy has recaptured his top form recently and both Errol Gulden and Tom Papley now have gotten a few games under their belts. It just feels like we’re getting Sydney a few weeks too late. However, we do need a genuine challenge superior to North, Essendon and St Kilda to provide us an update of where we are.

Horses for courses might exclude the ground conditions because we’re recalling captain Pearce and running with Darcy on the slippery deck. We cannot cotton wool them forever, especially when we're one of the nine teams desperately trying to squeeze into eight spots.

With the Dogs winning last night it leaves us in 7th, in front of the Suns in 8th who are playing Essendon, and the Giants in 9th up against West Coast. Both should win comfortably so the pressure is on and it'll leave us in a precarious position if we’re unable to skate past the Swannies.

Enough of the short pointed written stuff. Time to get out the ice pick and break the game down further. So, if the chilly gap between now and Sunday morning needs some purple warmth, don the beanie, ear muffs and gloves, pull on the freshly sharpened bladed skating boots and join us for a session on the conversational preview pod rink.

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Most of us will forever love Rosco. However, while difficult and precarious at times, it was pretty pleasing to enter the Optus Stadium safari park Sunday and take down a big game Lyon. Time to Restump Podcast the successful hunting expedition.

It is still both traumatic and reassuring to revisit our previous encounter against Rosco and his Saintly pride. While we were largely our own worst enemy on the day, they brutally ripped us to shreds in what was an unwatchable massacre. However, fast forward eight weeks and we righted the wrongs and made amends.

Do the subsequent positives, including the retributive win yesterday, outweigh the negatives of that fateful day eight weeks ago? Did we need the mindset realignment mauling? We'll never know but going into yesterday, I'm not sure we'd have been on the end of a five-game winning streak had we not suffered that troubling experience. The great man did take us to a grand final… did our former coach inadvertently do us another favour?

In or beyond the football world everyone at some stage in their lives has to take their beneficial beating. Our core group took theirs eight weeks back. It was a humiliating and embarrassing belting on the big stage that put the climactic cap on some catastrophic form.

The depths of despair are often where the healing begins and change is born, but it takes some sort of catalytic event to arrive at the arena of realisation. It’s evident by the reported hard spoken truths, the subsequent soul searching and the carrying of energising scars since, that the previous Saints game was our season defining moment of mortality. Yesterday’s performance only put an exclamation point on it.

The team we were eight weeks back to the team we have been since is unrecognisable. We’re not in the top echelon yet, but we’re a different unit, a more psychologically pro-active collective exuding energised initiative. We’re now a group of personal responsibility taking, team-oriented and driven individuals.

We've now arrived at the end of the rare period in which we made hay while the home ground sun shone. In a recent era, within this season, the thought of vital wins would have rendered us jittery, robbing us of maximising the benefit from the advantageous run of home ground games. But while it has been a great yield, the harvest is far from complete.

While our hopes of hitting back and securing 4 points of retribution were realised, the victory was more important for bigger fish to fry reasons. We’re sitting in 6th but we’ve got three teams breathing down our necks, Gold Coast have a game in hand and we’re all but occupying the equal lowest percentage of the top 9 teams. Clearly there is still plenty of work to be done, but you get the feeling we're up for the challenge.

Time for a further chat about the actual game on the pod in more depth... thankfully not the despair level depth! So, for whatever reason, if your ears have recently done you wrong and you’re looking for revenge on them, our nonsensical purple noise is a fitting retributive punishment.

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So productively in sync and inseparable are Serong and Jackson, they’re starting to morph into one Calukeb Jacksong entity! Time to Restump Podcast the dispatching of the Dons.

A combined 56 possessions, 48 hitouts, 17 clearances, 18 score involvements, over 1,000 metres gained and 5 goals neat from Serong and Jackson! Coles and Woolworths are screaming, “What about that duopoly!”

Let’s just get all the prefacing out of the way early. Yes, it was Essendon, yes, we were expected to win comfortably, yes, they’re battling and yes, Vigo Visantini was their sole ruck on debut.

With that been said and now subconsciously considered, Thursday was a job satisfactorily and entertainingly done.

Despite the first quarter midfield dominance of the Dons, the result really was never in doubt. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Are we better than that display? Maybe in patches and on occasions, but taking into account the last 5 weeks of form, we’re probably a 4th to 9th type of team at the moment.

Did our rare as hens teeth accurate kicking make us appear more overall dominant than we truly were? The second and third quarters we piled on 10 goals 1 to the Bomber’s 4 goals 6. On paper, at least, they’re the same opportunities.

Anyway, focusing on the underlying possible realities isn’t necessarily fun, so let’s talk about Luke Jackson instead. Remember back to those days when there were those who were angry at the club for spending up on what Jackson cost us, suggesting he was overrated? Those crazy dazey times!

His ruckwork was one thing, but his fourth midfielder traits somehow astonishingly continue to increase. And not enough fuss has been made about his 3 goals! They weren’t gimmes or marks in the goal square, they were from long range and or under pressure on the run.

And the other member of Calukeb Jacksong, did he have a day out or what? When Caleb Serong, not exactly known for his accuracy, hit that goal from the boundary… it was put the glasses down, this game is done.

Elsewhere, Corey Wagner’s stock continues to rise after another super polished performance, clamping down on Zac Merret. He attended a career high 17 of the 29 centre bounces.

Jordie Clark must be an All-Australian lock and Luke Ryan was back to his mopping up everything best.

On top of kicking goals and clunking grabs, Josh Treacy hunts opponents down. He literally corals, confuses and catches them. Shai Bolton has simply made us a much better team and Freddy could have had a big day out.

Where are we all on Nat Fyfe? It is just his first true game back, but he attended just 5 centre bounces and had little to no impact up forward. Jojo stands by his hard call but the Chief is keeping the faith and extending the hand of opportunity. There is something about September that tells me we’ll be thankful for a Fyfe!

The Darcy conversation will only escalate. Have we done the right by him, throwing him to the Max Gawn and Toby Nankervis type wolves and then resting him against a debutant? Is there more to the resting story than we’re being told? We kneed to know!

We ticked the box that needed ticking, we made another 4-point deposit in the September action bank and we got some entertainment along the way. Let’s rinse and repeat!

The game does seem like it was long ago, but it was too entertaining not to dig conversationally deeper. So, bring your language luggage, grab your purple talking twigs and join us in the conversing corner as we all bang on about the banishment of the Bombers.

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We’ve been a circus at times but now we’re a Dogga and Prancing Pony show! Time to Restump Podcast the withdrawal of the 4 points from the Kanga bank.

When you get over the line in a last gasp effort against a team serially occupying cellar dwelling real estate, you’re usually disappointed and rarely anything more than relieved. However, on this occasion, North deserves the credit. They brought and applied a pressure level none of us saw coming and it was all but good enough to beat us.

However, in what is another step in the right direction and a feather in our cap, we found a way to win when previously we may not have done. Is this the maturing filtering through? The age and experience factors gradually starting to take shape?

Can we just dip our lids, applaud and enjoy the Voss gloss? A two-time club discard, what a revelation Paddy Voss has been. From outside looking in, not only has he played his part in transforming our former robotic and predictable manner, he has created energy with his enthusiasm and made a material contribution. We say the Saints game was the catalyst for Freo's turnaround, but has it been the Prancing Pony instead? He came in the game after and has kicked 10 goals in his 5 games since.

And while we’re on the topic of discarded players, Corey Wagner deserves a standing ovation. Luke Davies Uniacke was cutting us to ribbons, ending the first half with 20 touches and a goal. Second half, Mr Longmuir said, “Mr Davies Uniacke, meet Mr Wagner.” LDU ended the game with 27 touches.

Tristian Xerri was always going to be a problem but we saw some good improvement in Sean Darcy and while Luke Jackson didn’t have his substantial midfield impact, he still found a way to influence the game.

However, had it not been for the great Josh Treacy’s defensive acts, we may be singing a different tune today. Sure, you expect Cyclonic performances in wet weather, but his game saving mark backing into a pack of Kangaroos deep in defence with just moments to go, has been undersold. His subsequent kick out of bounds on the full… we won't mention that.

We won the game so the coaches obviously got it right, but there was a little disappointment in the subbing off of Neil Erasmus. For someone who has lacked opportunity and hasn’t put a foot wrong since his return, maybe there were grounds for keeping him on.

But with Fyfe looking for minutes, Nathan O’Driscoll playing superbly at Peel, Alex Pearce thereabouts, Izzy Dudley set to return and Brandon Walker closing in, there might be a few selection headaches and disappointments in the near future. Not a bad problem to have though.

It was the first of the five vital games that will determine our September quest and we got the dishes done. And at the end of the day, that is all we really needed to do. We now need to feast on the next four and sure up some percentage given the tightness of the battle for top eight spots.

It’s a short turnaround as this Thursday night we take it to the Dons who are coming off a belting at the hands of Geelong. We need to be ready for their response.

All in all it was a better win than a win over a bottom placed team suggests. We were made to work for it and we had to earn it. However, we got shown that we’re still susceptible to pressure and if a top eight team dropped it on us, they also probably wouldn’t allow us to score as freely and get away with it. Just some assessable balance food for thought.

It’s more a bank the 4 points and move on but there’s always plenty to bang on about. So, if you’re not ready to robotically put it behind us and be all methodical about it, feel free to join us on the pod to squeeze every last ounce of e

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You have to respect the hustle! Time to Restump Podcast the Saturday night clash against the well-rested, tin rattling, garage sale conducting, home game selling Kangas.

North Melbourne have been staying in WA for the entire week, showcasing Bunbury to Rottnest. We know they're a bit light in the pockets, but are they on the WA tourist bureau books?

Whatever the case, they're going to be well rested and while they played a game last week down in Bunbury, it's fair to say both Freo and the Kangas are coming off byes.

We're going in with an unchanged line-up and, in our most recent batch of form, it suggests complications and products of the bye should be our greatest hurdle. We're only tongue in cheek disrespecting the Kangas with our nonsense, but having watched their performance last week against the Eagles... we really shouldn't be losing this game.

While an unchanged line-up produces continuity and stability, it means on this occasion we're going around again without the captain and without our best option for Nick Larkey. The Kangas forward isn't in hot form but he can turn it on. Paul Curtis on the other hand has had a career best year to date and is one that we'll need to do a little more than keep an eye on.

Tristian Xerri is up there with, if not the best, rucks in the league and in the absence of a second ruck, he’ll be up against team JackArce. It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement not only in Sean Darcy’s game and condition, but more so his game time minutes.

Five weeks ago we’d just put in that insipid performance against St Kilda. We were all emotionally distraught, the sack the coach crowd were at fever pitch, our season was thought to be over and we were individually questioning all the decisions we’d made in our lives up until that point.

Fast forward to round 14 and we’ve run the premiership favourites to a couple of goals, beaten GWS, Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, sit in 9th with 7 wins staring at five winnable upcoming games with four of them at home to be eyeing off top four once again, and not a murmur from the “to hell with JL” gang!

We’ve won 50% of our post-bye games across our history. However, we’ve won 62.5% of our post-bye home games. As this is a post-bye away game at home, there isn’t exactly a sufficient sample size of indicative statistics for that!

While nothing is certain in life, victory over the Kangas on Saturday night should really be a formality. Yes, go ahead throw your accusations of “jinxing us” and “tempting the footy Gods” at me. The truth is, if we can’t beat superstition, we may as well sell our home games because we wouldn’t be a serious club!

It feels a case of little to win and much to lose with little hope of losing it. Conventionality will get the job done but procedural tendencies are uninspiring. Do we need some sort of Griffin Logue centred shenanigans to raise the vibration and spark enthusiasm?

Can we raise the spirits and lift the mental intensity on the pod as we discuss Saturday night’s clash against the Skippies? It’s a tall order! We offer no guarantees or returns, but we’ll give it a go.

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Was that a career best performance from Uncle Sam Switkowski? Or as a commentators call him Sam Swiskowski or Sam Sierakowski. Time to Restump Podcast that season setting up win over the Suns.

Have we moved from cautious optimism to guarded enthusiasm? Or has that magnificent victory seen a release of the shackles, sending us into expectational elation? But we must be measured and keep some perspective, as we know the dangers of getting ahead of ourselves. With that been said… we may never lose again!

Are we seeing the team and the performances we thought we’d see at round one this year? There has been a conspicuous shift across the board. There is a notable difference in the unwavering intent and effort, there is desire to contest, to run for each other and there has been widespread adoption of the non-negotiables.

The game plan has been tinkered with and there have been a couple of personnel changes and positional adjustments, but the predominant the change has been mentality.

It feels that the St Kilda game was the catalyst for change. Whatever happened post-match, whether it was the reading of the riot act, hard truths being aired or ultimatums given, it flicked the switch and snapped them out their funk. Will we look back in history and remember that game as our Keating recession moment, the horrendous performance we had to have?

But back to Saturday to that almost impossible victory.

It was so pleasing to see Sammy Switkowski put in a monster, arguably a career best game. All anyone is asking of him is to bring that consistency in effort and intent.

Did we learn anything about the prospects of team JackArce? If that combo allows that type of performance from Jackson, then it works and it’ll only improve. Darcy spent just 50% time on ground but got to 57 ruck contests and won over half of them. Let’s not forget he’s far from full match fitness. Jackson was mental… 27 influential possessions… 19 ground ball gets… for god’s sake… he’s 2 metres tall. What world is he from!

Can we give some love to Corey Wagner? What a wonderful pick up he has been. His tweaked role has unleashed his inner midfielder. He was superb on Saturday with his versatility, hitting the scoreboard, taking territory and defending.

But as much love as we’re throwing Wagner’s way, we’ve got a little bit more than that for Shai. Were we sure we’d get such effort-based leadership from him? I’ll admit I thought he’d be the cream on the top and would cap things off when we were going well. I didn’t expect him to be the buy in guy and lead with such attitude. And I’m not sure I ever contemplated he’d win a game for us with a fatigued, last gasp tackle in the wet. Its like we donned the balaclava and shotgun on Richmond!

But let’s pull up a bit, the big love-in is getting a bit much.

So, for some balance and to keep us grounded, is it too far to tongue in cheek suggest Caleb might not hit water if he fell out of a boat? You know your foot skills need sharpening when you’d contemplate backing Fyfey in a one-on-one goal kicking contest! We still love you, Caleb!

Speaking of the great man, how good was it to see Nat Fyfe run out there at ¾ time and a have a meaningful impact on the game. Shut up… I wasn’t crying… it was a Gold Coast rain drop in my eye….

To hell with the lid, let’s start some safe, non-Voss style high fiving and yahooing about that season setting up win on the pod. Feel free to join us but if you’re going to come in hot with your ‘one week at a time’ stick in the mud pessimistic nonsense, you’ll be shown the door!

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Talk about going from chocolates to boiled lollies back to chocolates and then boiled lollies again! The loss of Captain Pearce is far from ideal and we literally did the hokey pokey with him all week. Time to Restump Podcast the stoush against the Suns.

This is almost as tough an assignment as there is in AFL at the moment. Playing the Gold Coast Suns on their home deck usually doesn't end well for the touring teams in recent times. They've won 9 of their last 11 games at home, they're sitting pretty in 3rd on the ladder and they still have a game in hand.

Considering they've only had 2 games at home so far this year, it means they've won 6 games away from People's First Stadium, something they've struggled to do up until this season. So, it is it pretty safe to say the Gold Coast Suns have now finally arrived?

Making our tough task more difficult, we've lost Captain Pearce, to the absolute delight for Ben King. We've also lost livewire forward Izzy Dudley and obviously Cooper Simpson. However, Nat Fyfe, Sean Darcy and Josh Draper return fill the void and they're 3 handy ones to pick up the slack.

It’s an interesting decision to bring both Darcy and Fyfe back in when the forecast is for big bloody buckets of rain. Not that you can't get injured in the WAFL, but it's a little surprising they didn't go around in the twos. However, you'd imagine both will somehow be on managed minutes.

Is it the ideal time to restart the validation trial of project JackArce? Up against Jarrod Witts and Ned Moyle in the expected torrential conditions, it just feels that maybe we haven’t set Sean Darcy up for success. But we’re not conditioning coaches or sport scientists so, who knows.

Beyond the project are we making an error going in extremely tall? It failed a couple of weeks back and those conditions were pristine. Maybe the selection committee are backing the courage of their conviction.

Not going to lie, as much as we tried to stave it off, the cautious optimism crept up and infected us again over the last couple of weeks. But Saturday is a different kettle of fish.... and given how much rain is forecast, that might be from a literal sense!

Matty Rowell, Noah Anderson and Bailey Humphrey give you the impression they'll drink up the wet conditions. We did play well in dampness last week but we may need to swim a few extra training laps before Saturday.

But, we're Dockers, we're waterside workers! Aren't storms and overcast conditions the natural enemies of the sun? What are we talking about here... we have the traditional conditional upper hand! And what do we always say at the Restump? If the world floods, it matters not to the duck!

Time to wander into the upcoming watery wrestle in greater in depth. So, join us as we take a quick preview dip and a cold plunge in the purple pod pool.

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He looks like he’d use a ladder to pick strawberries! Yet this Murphy Reid character continues to show us all he’s never out of his depth. Time to Restump Podcast Freo’s paddling of Port.

We don’t want to jump to early conclusions... God knows we’re not doing that injury again. However, a question need asking. Have we ironed out the kinks, rectified the glitches and exorcised the psychological demons?

Admittedly there'd be some concerns in the Port Adelaide camp but regardless of their issues, Saturday night Freo was impressive. We weathered the storm on multiple fronts, took all Port Adelaide could muster, before upping our game and returning serve.

The numbers escape me, but if memory serves me correctly, and it usually doesn’t, we’ve rarely been good wet trackers. Aren't we often the side throwing everything at an opponent, not getting scoreboard reward and leaving the door open? We reversed those roles on Saturday and it felt a little mature. Our efficiency and skills in the wet were something to behold.

And speaking of maturing, while they definitely lifted in the 2nd half, holding our own and not having to rely on Andy Brayshaw and Caleb Serong early, was an important growth.

If Murphy Reid isn’t leading the Rising Star award... open an investigation! His body of work, his nomination and now absurd 4-goal feat in what were often torrential conditions, should have him at unbackable odds. How can an 18 year old possess such composure and creativity! I’m starting to get nervous about his future and he’s here til the end of 2027!

Give whoever it was at the club that found Izzy Dudley, a pay rise. He’s been in the system 5 minutes and he’s doing ludicrous things. Imagine lining up on him… you’d be whispering to yourself, “I’m sorry what you’re about to be put through, ankles, but hang in there.” What is he going to produce when he gets a couple more preseasons under his belt?

What a tribunal result for the Captain. Our first win ever there? Maybe the AFL saying, ‘we want you to play this fast, brutal, full contact game but make instant decisions, at times while airborne, to protect someone who has no duty of care for themselves. And if you don’t defy the laws of physics and gravity and work intellectually at AI speed, you’re not playing within the spirit of the game, so we’ll penalise you 3 weeks’ has realised its own nonsense!

Charges aside, Alex Pearce is flying. Who would've thought we’d ever refer to him as a “good for a goal a game player?” He's been in super form and Saturday night was no different. He looks more fluent, comfortable and even nimble. Physically and mentally he must be tip top.

The off-field lead ruck battle isn’t behind closed doors any more. The 'sharing is caring' arrangement is gone as Luke Jackson is making his intentions clear. And in his current form, it’s hard to argue. Isn’t possession 9/10ths of the law? However, as good as Jackson is going, he's had a couple of favourable opponents of late. Sean Darcy has to first find some resilience, but there's still a bit to play out.

Dare we say it? Have we turned the corner? We still haven’t really beaten genuine top 8 sides, but our form feels different, like something has clicked. There’s a freer flowing footy style with greater balance and it seems players are more assured of their role. That said, Gold Coast on their home deck where they’re virtually unbeatable, will tell us where we’re at.

We’re 6 and 5 and just % out of 7th. Our season somehow feels very much alive and, damn it, if there isn’t cautious optimism growing.

So, you know the drill. If this written nonsense doesn’t fill your quota, then, providing you've no respect for your ears, tune into the pod and supplemen

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