Round 17 of the 2025 AFL season is in the books. So, it's time to react ... or overreact.
Brad Scott has called out the umpiring department, but is he right to? Is this season a failure if Freo don't make finals?
Let's get to this week's overreactions, where we judge a few major takeaways as legitimate or irrational.
Brad Scott is right, umpires should get out of the way
Essendon coach Brad Scott was very strong in his post-match press conference after his side's loss to Gold Coast, saying the umpires should be getting out of high traffic areas like the corridor, after young key forward Nate Caddy collided with an umpire running into space in the Dons' defensive 50.
"I've lost count of the amount of times I have contacted the AFL about moving the umpires out of the corridor. They sprint into the corridor and they stay there - and that's clearly where we want to get the ball," he said.
"We've been at them and at them and at them to move out of the corridor and the last response I had from (umpires boss) Steve McBurney was 'just pretend they're invisible'."
Verdict: Not an overreaction
At the end of the day, the product of Australian rules football is all about the players on the field. Not the umpires. Get out of the way! Brad Scott also raised some good points about the introduction of the fourth umpire allowing the men in green to get better angles on plays from less intrusive positions (hence his whinge about getting out of the corridor).
Let's be real, if players did as McBurney has said, and 'pretend they're invisible', there'll be even more collisions, something the AFL is wanting to get out of the game, after the league announced a crackdown on umpire contact last week.
We get it, umpiring is a tough gig, and we all want everyone to be safe out on the field, whether they're officiating or playing. But the umpires, unlike the players, are not showing a duty of care to themselves and others by the way they sometimes recklessly fly into space that teams are trying to utilise.
Do as Brad Scott says, and stay in "four quadrants on the outside of the contest, looking at the contest". Work as a constantly moving diamond, or rectangle, and avoid high-traffic areas as much as possible.
If Fremantle miss finals, the season is a failure
After 17 rounds, Fremantle find themselves clinging to ninth spot as the last team in the top tier of what's become a very divided ladder. Their shock loss to an improved but still bottom-nine Sydney was a missed opportunity that's left them outside the eight with seven rounds to go and two massive clashes looming against Hawthorn and Collingwood.
With high expectations coming into the year, many tipping them to finish in the top four, the conversation surrounding Fremantle has quickly shifted to whether missing the finals would actually make 2025 a wasted campaign for a talented group.
Verdict: Overreaction
Fremantle may have underachieved based on lofty preseason hopes, but labelling the entire year a failure if they miss the eight is just way too harsh, especially in this out-of-the-box season.
Right now, the top end of the ladder is so stacked that a team could win 14 games and still finish ninth. When was the last time a side needed 14 wins to scrape into the eight? That was way back in 2012, not to mention this year 15 wins may be what's genuinely required. The bar is so ridiculously high in 2025 that whoever does fall short will do so with a winning record.
This is still a young Freo side, too, and while they've dropped winnable games -- like the Swans (twice), the Saints in Round 8 and the Dees in Round 6 -- they've also shown they can match it with the league's best, particularly with their wins over the Bulldogs, Crows, Suns, and Giants. The inconsistency is frustrating, yes, but there's growth happening, and the list build still has time. If you told Freo fans back in March they'd win 14 games this year, surely they'd take it. Finals or not, that's a step forward, not a failure.
Maybe what matters most is how they approach the next seven weeks, and the next fortnight, with clashes against Hawthorn and Collingwood, is the first leg of a massive test.