After The Game With Snaps Truly - Rd 24 2025 v Western Bulldogs

I’ll be honest with you, for most of the week I have been treading water in sorrow-filled expectation of defeat. When it arrived, I would merely be set free from torment.

But a couple of days ago, something happened. Perhaps it was the Melbourne media crowing about the certainty of a Bulldogs victory and laughing that contempt-filled laugh at the failure of Freo to ever stand up when it mattered.

You know how it sounds – ‘Ha ha ha ha ha, Freo … Ha ha ha ha ha!!’

The smug bastards.

To hear even Buddy Franklin say Freo couldn’t win because we can’t win in Melbourne – just weeks after our victory over Collingwood at the MCG – well, that’s enough I thought. They’re my team and I will not have you speak of them this way.

(I will speak of them that way if required, but that is the rare privilege I hold.)

And so, I decided, with the help of Mrs Snaps, to put the jumper on again.

I went and ran a few laps.

Sold the dummy to the dog once or twice. (He did catch me holding the ball.)

Felt a bit sick with nerves.

But then declared myself ready.

To watch.

“Bugger them!”

What’s more, I’d heard a whisper from a club insider – or perhaps it was someone who knows someone who heard something the club insider said. Here is the direct quote as it arrived on my phone; ‘By all reports, the vibes are good within the camp and they are confident of getting the W.’

Now to believe the veracity of that is to believe Ghislaine Maxwell when she says Donald Trump does not appear in the Jeffrey Epstein files, but who doesn’t want to escape the imprisonment of shame filled failure, if hope is offered?

Not much was offered early. The Bullies snuck away to a 16-point lead at the first break and it could have been more, given they took five marks inside fifty and had 17 forays into the space.

Freo struggled to move the ball forward, but when they did they were surprisingly efficient. Bolton was at Jacko’s feet to crumb a beauty and then Young found Amiss on a strong lead. His kick was delightful. Might this finally be his day?

(Yes Snaps, you know it was, because you are writing this afterwards)

Indeed it was Jye who set the game alight for Freo in the second. He coughed up one goal attempt – electing to pass rather than kick it, but a moment later he received from Reid to will home his second.

Luke Jackson, who ran tirelessly all day kicked Freo’s fourth and when Jye kicked a sensational goal tucked up against the boundary, Freo had taken the lead.

Murphy Reid must surely be judged the Rising Star after what happened next. He took the ball in the middle, combined with Switta for a couple of back-and-forth handballs and then calmly slotted the long goal. It was superb stuff.

Freo was cutting the vulnerable Bullies backline to pieces and when Bolton added another and Voss took the ball off the pack to kick our eighth – the commentators started using words like ‘relentless.’

Our big three forwards were finally firing on the same day and when Treacy added another, Freo had kicked seven goals to nothing for the term.

Delighted to see Rory Lobb blinking into the lights. Bereft. The lead at the half 26 points.

At this point, I turned to our friend Belinda, a visiting Geelong supporter. She looked up calmly from some knitting to tell us, ‘This is what it’s MEANT to feel like.’ And she should know.

Oh sure there were to be tense moments later, but Freo’s third quarter discipline was excellent, so the game always seemed just beyond the Bullies reach, even with the superlative Marcus Bontempelli doing his best to bring them home.

And quite frankly, when Neil Erasmus kicked a brilliantly composed goal – yes, you heard it here first – Freo led by 32 at the last change.

I did have to keep looking over at our Geelong friend occasionally in the final quarter to be reassured she wasn’t thinking, let alone saying, ‘They’re not going to squander this are they?’

But Freo didn’t. The Bullies kicked seven goals for the quarter but Freo kicked four of their own. Serong and co did just enough out of the middle to feed Voss and Treacy and Freddy when it mattered most.

On the siren it was Freo home by 15 points and into finals for just the ninth time.

Fifth place on the ladder right now and with a home final in a couple of weeks.

And the whisper from the club insider – or perhaps someonewho knew someone who heard from the club insider – is that we might win that too.

Congratulations Freo.

And be assured, tonight I’m not drowning, I’m waving.

Yours Truly,

Snaps Truly.

* By our multi-talented and amazingly insightful footy scribe, SNAPS TRULY. Snaps has seen and done it all. He may or may not have been a fringe player at Fremantle. Don’t miss Snaps’ report after each Freo Dockers match here on the Shipping News throughout the 2025 season.

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