It's 30 years now since Fremantle entered the AFL competition. Saturday night also marks another anniversary of sorts, one which for Freo fans doesn't make for pleasant memories.
The Dockers are up against Hawthorn in Perth, near enough to 10 years since they also took on the Hawks in a home clash, but one with higher stakes attached, a Grand Final spot on the line. Not for the first or last time, Freo would come out on the wrong end.
Hawthorn had already beaten Fremantle in the 2013 Grand Final. In the 2015 prelim, it would deny them another chance at a first AFL premiership, beating the Dockers by 27 points. And as far as serious flag contention goes, that was that.
In nine seasons since, Fremantle has made finals just once. It went from topping the home and away ladder in 2015 to finishing a dismal 16th with just four wins the very next year. And right now, it's in what has become achingly familiar territory. On the fringes of the top eight, good enough to make it, but not nearly reliable enough for anyone to be even marginally confident the Dockers will do so.
It's not like they are incapable against good opposition. Already in 2025, Fremantle has beaten Western Bulldogs and Adelaide at home, GWS and Gold Coast on the road, and pushed flag favourite Collingwood to within 14 points.
Indeed, statistically, Fremantle in 2025 is faring better against top eight opponents than those sides below it on the ladder.
The Dockers (ninth on the ladder) rank fourth for points scored against top eight teams compared to 12th against the sides beneath them. They're second on the inside 50 count against the top eight but only 10th against the bottom nine, third as opposed to 15th for clearance differential, and fifth versus 15th for points scored from those clearance wins.
But that same team has also been taken apart by Geelong at GMHBA Stadium (understandable) and St Kilda (less so) besides losing to Melbourne.
And a major achilles heel for coach Justin Longmuir's team remains, as has been the case so often over the years, its offensive game, despite ostensibly more firepower in attack via key forwards Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and the likes of Shai Bolton, Patrick Voss and Luke Jackson.
Fremantle is at best mid-table in virtually every offensive category. Only three of the last 25 AFL premiership sides have ranked any lower than sixth for points scored. The Dockers right now are only ninth. They're just 16th for marks inside 50, 11th for scores per inside 50, seventh for points from turnover and eight for points from stoppage.
Officially the AFL's slowest ball movement team, the Dockers are at least decent defensively, currently fifth for fewest points conceded and sixth for restricting opposition transition from defence to attack.
But in a total of 38 key statistical indicators monitored by Champion Data, Fremantle ranks top six in just five of them, and is indeed bottom six in some major areas such as disposals, contested possession differential, uncontested marks and mark/play-on percentage.
Their midfield numbers are universally mid-table or bottom six despite the presence of clearly their best players, Caleb Serong and Andrew Brayshaw. Hayden Young's absence since Round 8 with a serious hamstring injury has proved a significant blow indeed, one underlined over the past fortnight as opponents have clamped down on Serong and his output has taken a major hit, Freo left without enough alternative sources of drive.
In short, the Dockers don't do anything well enough to compensate enough for their biggest weaknesses. Which in competitive terms, leaves them well short of the standards required to match the very best when it counts.
It sounds strange to be saying that of a team which until last week had won six games in a row and only lost to Sydney away from home by 11 points.
But should Freo drop this home clash with the Hawks, they'll be a game and percentage outside the eight, with their next assignment on the MCG against ladder leader and flag favourite Collingwood. Then it's a WA derby and a home clash with Carlton, before a tough trifecta to finish, Port Adelaide away, reigning premier Brisbane, and the Western Bulldogs.
Given the Dockers sat third on the ladder with only four rounds to play last year and still somehow managed to miss out on finals, that's not a situation that will make Longmuir sleep any easier.
Particularly not with the club planning to move Longmuir on to an "ongoing employment agreement" come the end of the season. And especially not given the last two AFL coaches on such employment arrangements were Carlton's Brendon Bolton and North Melbourne's David Noble. And no, that didn't end well for either.
Make of all that context what you will, but added together for the Dockers, perhaps this meeting with Hawthorn really isn't all that much less important than the preliminary final 10 years ago.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.