After The Game With Snaps Truly – OR or is it Rd 1 2026 V Geelong

Hello, good hearted Freo fans, welcome back to another season of exquisite emotional turmoil.

Shall we begin with an invitation to ‘Dare to dream?’

Let’s.

After all, there’s plenty of time to succumb to ‘It’s the hope that kills you.’

I was broken hearted when we lost that final to Gold Coast last year. My review of the game featured a single bitter word.

Crestfallen.

But that was then. I promise you, Snaps has snapped back and sits here almost frothing with yes, maybe delusional verbosity.

I mean, look at our squad!

Strength through all the lines. Quick quality ball movement promised. New avenues to goal. Murphy Reid and Hayden Young to share the Brownlow. Big grinning personalities everywhere and Remember the Name Banfield probably not in our best twenty-two.

Bless him.

Taking on what? The ageing heroes of an unremarkable regional town with an ugly acronym for a stadium name and a coach who looks like Barry Gibb.

See how confident I am? Daring to insult a proud football club which has enjoyed decades of stellar success. That’s the freedom that comes ahead of the opening toss of the pill. On the opening second week of the season. (Damn the AFL for this good prose destroying nonsense.)

But what a start. Let me give you the headline. Fremantle kicked 8.4 for the term, our highest first quarter total ever outside WA. The Dockers scored twelve times from fifteen inside fifties. Extremely efficient.

And usually, the result of a bullet pass or a chain of possessions be it, the combo of Voss to Amiss to Serong …

Or Clark to Treacy to Amiss.

And when Drizzy kicked what is surely the Goal of the Year (so far) and was then brought down by a Patrick Voss celebratory headlock, well, it was just about perfect.

In the second quarter, Geelong came out strongly. Well, Shawn Mannagh did. He played like an Irishman, even though he isn’t one and kicked three in a row to narrow the margin to sixteen points, before a brilliant snap from Dudley Do Right pushed Freo clear again. 

A goal on the run from Reid and then another to the dominant Treacy and the Dockers raced to a match high 32-point advantage.

At which point the Fox commentators, clearly failing to adjust to the changing narrative, started cheering the home side on. As did the umpires. 

Uh oh. Here we go. He just mentioned the umpires.

It worked. Two quick goals to Cameron, the second of which a handball from the previously unsighted Dangerfield cut the lead at the long break to 22pts.

Could Freo extend it? Would they hold on? 

No and yes, for a while.

Shannon Neale who surely is AI generated and must therefore be immediately disqualified from the game, kicked three goals for the Cats in the third quarter, as Geelong began to exert midfield dominance. Freo managed to hang onto the lead thanks to the brilliance and persistence of Dudley Do Right and a Brayshaw high tackle free kick, but I was starting to get that dry throat feeling.

You know the one? When you are about to gasp for air and no one can hear your pleas for water. 

Freo were clinging to a ten-point lead at the final change, but then they relinquished both the cling and the lead.

The boys ran out of legs and Geelong found theirs,

And frankly Vossy went a bit nuts. Shots on goal were narrowly missed – one of which was prematurely celebrated – free kicks were given up and fifty metre penalties conceded. Jackson and Serong had worked themselves to the point of exhaustion, but Freo’s other midfielders had faded and failed to win enough footy when it mattered.

It wasn’t pretty.

But it had been.

For quite a while. 

You know, early on.

Can good teams lose after kicking eight goals in the opening quarter? Yes. And they have before, but I can’t remember who else or where – so if you’re so interested feel free to go and look it up yourself.

Steady Snaps.

But Freo did today. Creating another one of our famous headlines. 

Nearly. Didn’t.

But it’s only the opening second week of the season.

Am I crestfallen?

Certainly not.

Melbourne at home next week. I look forward to the company of Mrs Enid Grimbergen who must have reached a great age by now, unless of course she died in the offseason. It’s the hope that probably killed her.

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 2026 season.

~ You’ll find more Snaps Truly right here.

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