After The Game With Snaps Truly - The QF 2026 V Hawthorn

The build-up was big. Purple popping up everywhere, bandwagon jumpers jumping and even the ABC News Breakfast team turned up in town.

All wanting to be part of the Freo story. Good luck to them. But it’s you I’ve been thinking about. The fair dinkum ones.

Who’ve been waiting for so long. For this – a Qualifying Final and the double chance.

Daring to dream, after years of being laughed at for having so much blind faith and belief.

But we did and we do and we will again, whether we win this thing or not.

We say that I suppose to try to quell the fear in our hearts that if we don’t beat Hawthorn tonight, then next week will be excruciating.

Everyone’s looking for signs. Gunston kicked five in a half, last time. He couldn’t do it again could he? And how many of you remember he kicked Hawthorn’s opening goal in the 2013 Grand Final?

I do.

And the third. After Buddy Franklin was gifted their second with a 50-metre penalty against Luke McPharlin.

And their fifth.

Is it an omen that my old mate Rob planted purple petunias yesterday and this morning they were already dead?

I’ve been looking at Freo fans on the train. Some of them are strung as tight as a Stradivarius.

And yet for all that, I’ve been pretty chipper. Not scratching at my red itches.

Telling anyone who’ll listen that we’ll beat the Hawks by 44 points.

I don’t go into detailed analysis.

I just say 44 points and then fold my arms and stare out the window, hopefully looking like a bloke who knows what he’stalking about.

Because if we don’t have belief after our most successful home and away season ever – when will we believe?

New seats tonight. Sixty thousand people in unfamiliar spaces that will offer different perspectives.

I‘ll miss that kid who normally sits behind us and screams ‘You’ve got this!’ to whoever is lining up for goal. The kid who never looks defeated if they haven’t. She just goes again.

As we will have to tonight. Again and again.

The Dockers were on the board straight away. We stood as one and roared as Dogga marked and goaled.

We did not know then, that was as good as it was going to get.

We did not know then, that Freo would kick just five goals for the game.

And the last of which, late in the final quarter, would come from Josh Treacy. With his one and only kick of the game after a free kick.

This was to be 2013 all over again.

Nick Watson kicked Hawthorn’s opener, and that was followed by Moore with an opportunist strike and Chol a strong mark.

Gunston scored after a soft free kick and the visitors cruised to quarter time 19 points clear. Their cocky Jack-the-lads, Watson and Ginnivan, barely able to suppress their glee.

Freo offered nothing but defensive angst and errant handballs. So many panicked handballs. So many high hope-for-the-best kicks into an overcrowded forward line on a greasy dirty night.

Pat Voss was being schooled by James Sicily, who also beat the crowd too. While people booed him as the terrible villain, he just twirled his moustache, tied Voss to railway tracks and patiently waited for the train to arrive.

The only highlight for the term was a sensational Jordan Clark climb and mark in this his 150^th game.

Freo managed only a point for the quarter and went to the half 33 points down.

The long break was filled with increasingly irrelevant motivational videos and a clarion call for fans to ‘Bring it!’ in the second half.

I felt like shouting back, ‘We’re not the bloody problem here!’

Indeed away to my left, a man of similar vintage was clearly stress eating Savoury Shapes. Should I warn him that I too used to do that when distracted and upset and on occasion would forget to swallow them. Piling them into my mouth, where they would set like poly-filler, requiring urgent extraction from Mrs Truly, lest I suffocate.

Should I tell him? Might he think me mad? This is what I was preoccupied with as the third quarter commenced. This and the very real possibility Jack Gunston had indeed somehow poisoned my mate Rob’s purple petunias.

Did anything get better?

No.

Oh sure there were moments when our best players tried to lift.

Brayshaw won a clearance and delivered to Amiss, who goaled, But then Young turned the ball over and Ginnivan responded immediately.

Brayshaw then gave it to Clark who found Switkowski and the margin was cut to 27 points.

But there were so many mistakes. Poor Nathan 0’Driscoll was just one who looked completely at sea when the pressure was on. Another turn over. The Hawks’ dominance reasserted.

Freo squared the quarter. Three goals apiece, but there was to be no fight left in the last.

And yes, that Josh Treacy mark and goal was his only kick for the night.

Freo, had gone inside on 57 occasions for five goals, at an efficiency rate of just of 8.8%. The Hawks were crisp and clean by comparison.

One special mention. Brandon Walker, returning for his second game of the year, began nervously against Nick Watson, but then built his game with real dash and verve. And then he succumbed to an ankle injury and was last seen at the back of the sheds wiping tears from his eyes.

This really was a lot like the Grand Final of 2013 – Freo flattered on the scoreboard, but in reality thrashed by a better team.

With one more week to put it right I trudged towards the train, wondering if we were saving our worst til last.

It would be a very Freo thing to do.

I kept my head down on the way home. I didn’t want to be recognised as the idiot who reckoned we’d win by 44 points.

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.

~ If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

~ WHILE YOU ARE HERE –