Fremantle Dockers have embraced their history and that could be the key to beating Western Bulldogs on Sunday

Fremantle can’t escape their history, but they can re-write it. If pressure is a privilege, the Dockers must feel like royalty. The pressure meter at Cockburn is sky high as they play for a finals spot against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday. The Dogs must win to play finals too, but the pressure and spotlight this week has been firmly on Freo. Why? Because it’s impossible to avoid history. A footy club’s history can be a burden or an advantage. If you’re successful, everyone points to that success. If you’ve battled, then the ghosts of seasons past will always hover over you. Football clubs are built on culture. They’re built on history. Fremantle could have been called Willetton or Rockingham or Bull Creek or Attadale. But the rich footy history across East Fremantle and South Fremantle provided a bedrock for the Dockers to build from. The club’s rocky start means history has always been a burden at Fremantle. But under Justin Longmuir, they’ve made the calculated decision to turn derision into a strength. They started with a symbol that has always been mocked — the anchor. Instead of the heavy anchor being seen as something which weighed then down, they talked about it as an advantage which could provide stability in rough seas. They printed “For The Anchor” on their uniform and plastered the phrase over their meeting room wall in gigantic block letters. Instead of worrying about history, they’ve used it as an inspiration. They’re playing for everyone who has ever worn the purple jumper. That means they’re running out with Matthew Pavlich, Shaun McManus, Ben Allan, Clive Waterhouse, Peter Bell and co every week. They were important steps because you can’t hide from history. Try suggesting to any Collingwood player who lost grand finals in the 60s, 70s and 80s that the Colliwobbles weren’t real. Those players had to deal with the past, even if they were in primary school when the club lost those grand finals. Essendon players live with the pressure of the club not winning a final since 2004. St Kilda players are attempting to fight off the ghosts of only winning one premiership. Matthew Richardson openly wept while sitting on the boundary line working for Channel 7 during the 2017 grand final. He’d been retired for eight years but lived the pain of his club not winning a flag for three decades. Aussie basketball icon Andrew Gaze was a blithering mess on live TV when the Boomers won the bronze medal at the Olympics. Decades of disappointment from Australia finishing fourth was finally washed away. You can’t argue that England’s soccer team doesn’t struggle with the pressure of their nation desperately wanting a World Cup win. “It’s coming home!” Well, it hasn’t come home since 1966. South Africa’s cricketers went through torment amid more than 30 years of bizarre losses in massive tournaments. It started in 1992 when needed 22 off 13 balls before a rain delay. Suddenly, the scoreboard flashed the unthinkable. The revised total was now 21 runs required off one ball. Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh in 1999 and Alan Donald didn’t run. It went on and on. Losing the 2024 T20 World Cup final despite needing 26 runs of 24 balls with six wickets in hand is the classic example of a nation that was haunted by the past. That’s why Justin Longmuir’s biggest job this week has been to sell a story and change the narrative. Sure, winning the clearances so Marcus Bontempelli isn’t streaming forward and giving the ball to Sam Darcy is crucial. But convincing his players that they are the favourites has been just as important. Longmuir is now the salesman. Every Fremantle player, coach and fan knows the club butchered the end of last season by losing four games in a row to drop from third to 10th. Last year was different. The club had injuries. That’s not the case in 2025. Don’t let last year impact this season. The loser of this game will miss finals and Fremantle have never won a game in the last round when their spot in the eight is up for grabs. Everyone knows that. But Longmuir has pointed out that the Bulldogs have won fewer games than Fremantle. He’s made it clear that they’re under the pump. The Dockers have won the same number of matches as teams that are locked in to play finals. To him, the history of 2025 matters more than anything that’s happened in other seasons. Josh Treacy was calculated this week when discussing the horror loss to Brisbane. How bad did the Dockers play? Treacy said he could only laugh at some of the uncharacteristic mistakes. Terminology is everything. There’s a difference between “we can’t afford to play like that again” and “we’ve never played like that before, so we’ll just get back to doing what we’ve done all year”. This group of players have embraced the past and welcomed the pressure. Now the Dockers have the opportunity to be the ones who re-write club history. And that’s why pressure is their unique privilege.