Will they improve? Will they regress? The big questions facing Fremantle in 2025

SEN Breakfast hosts Sam Edmund and Kane Cornes have run their eyes over Fremantle and how they’re shaping up for the 2025 campaign.

With the trade and free agency period now complete, Edmund and Cornes discussed how the club may improve in 2025, how they may regress if things go wrong and the big questions facing the club next season.

The Dockers disappointed in 2024, winning 12.5 games but losing their last four to finish 10th on the ladder.

How can they improve?

“Sean Darcy has to get fit and stay fit, ditto Brennan Cox and Alex Pearce,” Edmund said on SEN Breakfast.

“Josh Treacy showed he can be the man. I’d like to think he keeps getting better.

“Obviously Shai Bolton arrives, and Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong and Hayden Young are right in the sweet spot now.”

Cornes added: “They’re absolutely ready to go.

“Their actions through the trade period showed that. They paid a huge price to get Bolton in, they’ve got enough young guys coming through that have played a lot of football together and some guys absolutely in their prime.

“They’ve solved their forward key positions worries that they’ve had for a while now.

“They’ll be difficult to beat at home. That’s why they’ll get better.”

How might they regress?

Edmund: “What on earth do they do with Justin Longmuir?

“The pressure on him in a two-team town could engulf them. In March he signed the 12-month deal through to the end of 2025, so when it gets around to next March, what do they do here?

“Ultimately, they’ve finished 10th, so how important are the first few games? They have to let it go.

“He has to go into the first half a dozen rounds and it’s a ‘suck-it-and-see’. Is that ok in Perth? Can you imagine it over there?”

Cornes: “I think they’d be mocked as a footy club if they re-signed him before the season.

“It would be even more so now because they lost the last four from a position where they shouldn’t have missed finals. And then they’re going to re-sign him. On the basis of what?

“Now you’ve got all the tools that you need. You clearly needed a small forward/mid, you’ve got that, your key forwards have developed, your back six is good as any back six in football.

“The question is on the coach. I think he will get there and prove to be a good coach, but there’s still those questions.”

The other 2025 burning questions

Cornes: “There’s big questions on the rucks. That’s the biggest question I’ve got.

“Sean Darcy has great ability as a stand-alone ruckman where he is ‘the man’. He’s the number one ruckman, the problem is whether Sean can get on the park and whether he and Luke Jackson can co-exist.

“Because Jackson finished ninth in the best and fairest and Darcy hardly played.”