After The Game With Snaps Truly - Rd 23 2026 v Adelaide

Packed tight as anchovies in a good olive oil, we were chugging our way from Freo to the city, when suddenly the lights went out.

The train was plunged into darkness. Plunged I tell you, because that’s what often happens when lights go out. One plunges.

There was some garbled nonsense about technical issues on the Armadale line that would apparently force passengers to alight at East Perth and – hang on I thought, is this the ‘Taking of Pelham 123’ all over again – were we now at the mercy of an as yet unknown terror threat?

Not as crazy a conclusion as it sounds.

We’d just heard the Crows had suddenly been forced to flee their city hotel, while earlier a government press conference scheduled to discuss recommendations by some dirty t’othersiders that our share of the GST might soon be under question – was abruptly cancelled too.

Bewildered passengers, not knowing where this train was heading, bewildered each other some more with wild talk about where to go, and what did the word alight actually mean.

“Just turn right out of the station and follow your nose,” said one man. Another, adjusting mask and snorkel was heard to utter something like “We’ll have to swim across the river and be on the alert for bull sharks. If you see one punch it in the face with all your might.”

Whilst not one of the great human migrations, granted – there were still plenty of old Freo warriors wearing uniforms of a colourful past – with wonky knees and dodgy hips – left to fend for themselves – crossing freeways, forced to climb over rails and facing an unknown destiny.

Actually it was just up there. On the right. Nice walk on a balmy Friday evening when all had been said, done and plunged.

I hope you were reassured by my calm words and Perry Como tunes last week after the Melbourne game. I felt good about Adelaide tonight. They would push us for a while, but surely on a home deck in front of 55 thousand fans …

The visitors came out firing. Rory Laird scored their first and Darcy Fogarty picked up a scrubby chaos ball and finished cleverly.

Freo answered through Dudley on the end of a nice collect from Voss, and a moment later Serong delivered to Jye, who somehow managed to send the ball crashing into the post from close range.

Relax friends. He was to respond in the best possible way.

He goaled after a beautiful searching kick from 200 gamer Luke Ryan.

Shai Bolton’s delightful delivery gave him another.

And a strong chest mark on the lead made it three in a row and Jye was now running hard after the Coleman.

Amid some really tough high pressure footy, Young, Erasmus and Serong then combined to stretch the Freo lead to 14 points.

The game settled down a bit in the second quarter. Josh Rechele kicked a goal after Adelaide transitioned neatly out of defence and then, when Dudley earned a free kick for a high tackle, something really quite lovely happened.

A little bloke behind us called out “Please Dudley, get this.” And when he duly did, the kid called out “Thank you!”

It was like a Disney film.

I like kids. I liked the kids who left their classrooms in their thousands to protest against Pauline Hanson and One Nation this week too. I don’t much like the cynical old gits who sneered at them for doing so.

Not you of course.

Anyway, Rechele kicked his second. Freddy responded with a great snap after a huge effort from Andy, and Freo were up by just five at the half.

Goals to someone called Brayden Cook and someone else called Zac Taylor gave Adelaide a surprise early lead, which they held for about a minute before a Bolton clarance gave Jye his fourth.

Casbah rocked.

Shai again dashed away and found Treacy running into an open goal.

Credit to the Crows though. Rankine and Dawson were doing brilliant work and they replied quickly through Thilhorpe and Cook to snatch the advantage again.

But Freo’s best looked terrific. A beautiful chain of handballs produced another great Serong finish and shortly after, his midfield mate Andy snuck another one home. Freo seven points up with one to play.

Thilthorpe, which is less the name of a footballer than some silly place hidden by Tolkien mist, rather annoyingly and wearing a big smile, tied the scores again.

But that would be the end for Adelaide.

A lovely goal from Freddy pushed Freo clear and Jye kicked his fifth with a snap from close range. Fair play to The Prancing Pony who missed out on the scoreboard but had many score assists and regularly pulled the innards out of stricken defenders with huge tackles.

Dudley shaked, baked and then shaked some more to kick a fabulous third goal and Mason Cox again showed how useful he can, might or should be, when he converted from a strong mark.

When Shai set sail from outside 50 right near the end, the Dockers were home by 24 points.

Great stuff Freo and an incredible end to our best home season ever. Congratulations too, to ‘The General’ in his milestone match. How many times has he bravely put everything on the line to save his side.

Just a couple of points to finish on.

You’ll be relieved to know it was only a frantic fire alarm that caused the Crows to take flight from their hotel, so too the politcians from their press conference.

Oh and … a small apology if anyone was offended … etc etc …

At one point tonight, Old Snaps got a bit animated and told Darcy Fogarty that he had a “fat arse.”

It was rather cleverly disguised – the taunt, not the arse – in a Scottish accent, so when two ladies turned around in surprise, I was able to look equally appalled and pointed over my shoulder to suggest the remark must have come from somewhere behind me.

It was an unneccessary sledge, but I felt strangely entitled. Truth be told, I did have a rather pert one back in the day.

Photos of which … oh, perhaps not.

Off to the pub.

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.

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