Mark Duffield: Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles rarely meet at the right time of premiership builds

You will have heard the saying used to describe a football match that two teams “meet”. In round 22 of the 2022 AFL season St Kilda met Brisbane, the Western Bulldogs meet Greater Western Sydney and so on. The big problem with WA’s derby rivalry? Our teams don’t meet that often or for very long. One is always arriving when the other one is leaving. If we apply what Ross Lyon used to refer to as “fingernail deep analysis” (a term sarcastically applied by Ross to describe questioning of his methods) then the derby ledger is lop-sided. There have been 54 western derbies, West Coast have won 32 of them, Fremantle have won 22. If we use those fingernails to scratch a little deeper then a different picture emerges: The Eagles in the first four-and-a-half years of the rivalry won the first nine as Fremantle struggled to get a toe-hold in the town, let alone in the competition. Take those nine out and the scoreline reads Eagles 23 — Freo 22. Over a period of 23 years the Dockers have been almost as likely to win a derby as the Eagles. But dig a little deeper again — we are in this up to our knuckles now — and a different picture emerges again. The rivalry is a rivalry of streaks. West Coast have won 20 of their 32 in two winning runs — nine between 1995 and 1999 and 11 between 2015 and 2021. Fremantle have won 13 of their 22 in two winning runs — seven between 2007 and 2010 and six between 2012 and 2015. If we want our derbies to truly reflect the ferocity between the two clubs and the rich history of football in the State, we need both of our clubs in the same place at the same time or, as Mick Malthouse would put it, in roughly the same area on the face of the premiership clock. Don’t get me wrong — I have been covering football for far too long to write the Eagles off in derby 55. There is no such thing as a foregone conclusion in any match including a derby. It is only ever a two-horse race and there have been upsets. But that said, both teams come in stimulated and ready to play and so upsets are rare. The better equipped team almost always wins. And throughout the history of this rivalry there have only been rare periods where there hasn’t clearly been a better equipped team, one way or the other. There has been just one extended golden period in this rivalry where we used to arrive at the game without a pretty clear idea as to how things were going to unfold: Between 2002 and 2007 the clubs played in 12 derbies and won six each. In four of those seasons the clubs won a derby each. Five of the 12 games were decided by less than 20 points. Two of those matches rate among the greatest derbies played — round 22 in 2003 when the Dockers won by 14 points with a home final on the line. Round five 2006 when Fremantle won by five points off the back of Paul Hasleby’s last-minute goal. There have been other brief periods where the teams — and their capabilities — intersected. In round 18 of 2011 the Dockers who had played finals in 2010, were fighting to keep their finals hopes alive amid a growing injury crisis. The Eagles, having won the wooden spoon in 2010, were building towards a remarkable top-four berth. Hayden Ballantyne kicked on the siren for victory from 55 metres and hit the post. The Eagles won by a point in a classic. But at other points in history, even when the balance of power has shifted mid-season, our teams have passed like ships in the night, horns blown from a safe distance. In round three of 2015 the Dockers, having won five in a row, piled on nine unanswered goals in the first term before winning by 30 points. By round 20, the Eagles had built, caught and passed them on their way to a grand final and won comfortably by 24 points. It was the first of their 11-match win streak. Remarkably, in 28 years, our teams have been in the same finals series just four times. The South Australian teams had been in the same finals series four times by year nine of Port Adelaide’s existence. If you are a Freo fan who has just endured six years of derby torment that ended only 12 months ago, you are probably happy to see the Eagles where they are on the ladder. Fremantle’s rise looks sustainable and West Coast’s rebuild challenge looks formidable. But as a purist, it would be nice to get our teams in the one place, at the one time for an extended time.