After The Game With Snaps Truly - Rd 20 2026 V West Coast

It won’t surprise any of you that I have long been a keen student of the ancient Greek texts and this week I went to see The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s slightly contemporary retelling of one of literature’s greatest stories.

A story of conquest and struggle and triumph and tragedy and as I write this now I can see a lone West Coast Eagles supporter in front of me – narrow of shoulder, hidden by a hoodie, trying to sit unnoticed in a sea of marauding Freo fans.

What must it be like for him tonight. To stare miserable defeat in the face again.

Searching this battlefield where once, hoardes of blonde, lotus flower eating, berserkers ran amok, winning great victories, creating carnage and pillaging like no-one’s business.

But that was then.

Today, there are it seems no West Coast warriors left.

Just a few kids with really bad haircuts running around bumping into each other and falling over pretending to be dead, just to get this over with.

Less plundering, more blundering.

So much so, that frankly, Cyclops would have poked his one good eye out rather than watch a moment more. The Sirens, staring with horror at the Waterman mullet on the big screen, would surely have waved him on to the next island without even contemplating a sly come hither.

And back in Ithaca or Cottesloe, those waiting for word of better news and renewed hope, were left once again to drown in a wine dark sea of merlot and failure.

Chardonnay of course, is more of a summer drink.

Roll end credits

In less poetic terms?

Well to be fair they did show up in the first half. Freo blazed often and missed often and the Eagles took their few chances. Harley Reid, certainly the number two ranked version these days, won clearances and contested possessions, but spent so much time whingeing , the umpires had to put wax in their ears.

When Freddy snapped and missed from a millimetre out it was clear Freo needed to tidy up.

Which they did of course. While feasting on West Coast dreams.

Amiss was an enormous and unstoppable target. Murphy Reid seduced better than The Sirens. Hapless chasers dashed on rocks.

Freddy made up for his casual moment with some time shifting brilliance to again find Amiss and at the half, Freo led by eight points.

And all the while, the huge Dockers crowd took deep draughts of delight and shouted out bawdy things.

O’Driscoll opened the third with a great goal and Reid again produced more superb hard running link up footy to find the irrepressible Dudley.

Moments later they paired up again, only this time Duds gave the ball back and Reid goaled. The margin now 28 points.

Jye marked and goaled. Freddy then produced a great curling triumph to make it five in a row to Freo.

Waterman responded with what would be the Eagles only goal of the second half. Not one of his teammates ran to him.

The lead 32 points at the final change.

After which, Freo blew a gale.

Amiss immediately fed the ball to Nod for his second. And Treacy brought the ball down for Switta to cleverly clean up. Two goals in a moment.

Bolton added another from long range. Jye was too strong and simply too Jye and kicked his fifth – and in a moment of great skill and hilarity Mason Cox grabbed the ball out of a ruck contest, stumbled, swerved and steadied and managed to get a foot to it.

A brilliant goal. Watching him roar at Harley Reid in the skirmish afterwards was quite the highlight.

When Luke Jackson completed his own version of the same trick moments later, Freo had completed an eleven goal to one second half and the battle was over.

A 70 point shellacking. Murphy Reid won the medal.

I didn’t see Harley clap.

Freo truly the one team in the AFL shaking the thunder from the sky.

But Eagles fans, don’t despair.

That tech alien Elon Musk is apparently making another version of The Odyseey on Grok, using artifical intelligence and his gift for pure malice.

Perhaps that bloke in the hoodie in front of me might turn out to be Odysseus.

But it could take a decade to find out and you don’t win many away.

Hey Calypso, pass me those lotus flowers. They’re delicious.

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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