"One that got away": Inside Jesse Hogan's Fremantle troubles

Jesse Hogan has established himself as one of the competition’s most deadly key forwards, booting 227 goals in 91 games with GWS and nailing five straight as WA's best on ground in the AFL's State of Origin return.

However, Hogan's career has been far from linear.

Selected by Melbourne in the 2012 mini-draft, WA-born Hogan would go on to win the Rising Star in 2015, enjoying four strong years at the Demons before requesting to return home due to personal matters at age 23.

Joining Fremantle in 2018 in exchange for Pick 6 – which the club would trade to the Suns for Steven May and Kade Kolodjashnij – and Pick 23 – used to select Tom Sparrow – Melbourne received an adequate package in exchange for their key man.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Hogan and the Dockers would get off to a rocky start, with the young star turning up to training off the back of an alcohol-fuelled night with friends from home, earning an in-club ban before ever taking to the field.

Dealing with mental struggles over his transitional years, Hogan would only mount 12 games in his debut season, re-injuring a troublesome foot in Round 14 that would require season-ending surgery.

After taking a mental health leave of absence in January of 2020, a quad injury ruled Hogan out of 2020’s season opener, before a calf injury limited the forward to just seven games and five goals.

Hogan subsequently requested a trade, leaving the Dockers for GWS in November of 2020. Fremantle received Pick 54 in the 2020 draft – used to select Joel Western, who would go on to play just four games for the club.

So, what went wrong for Hogan at Fremantle?

Former Dockers’ GM of talent and strategy Peter Bell revealed that although the club weren’t able to get the best out of Hogan, it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

“It’s a massive one that got away for Freo,” Bell told SEN WA Breakfast.

“There’ll be a lot of talk around it being a terrible trade; it wasn’t a terrible trade, it was just that between Jesse and us, we couldn’t make it work, so you’ve got to own that.

“The club has to own it, I have to own it, John Longmuir has to own it, leaders have to own it. When I think back to it, we just couldn’t establish a connection with Jesse – and he has to take responsibility too.

“We couldn’t create that feeling for him of belonging, so he couldn’t get the best out of himself. Other factors - injuries, a few other things.

“The other part was, at the time, where he was at, Perth was a bad place for him. He didn’t enjoy the scrutiny that became bigger and bigger the more his form deteriorated and the more issues that he had, the more interest there was in him.

“When I used to look at him, I would imagine it would have felt like the walls were closing in on him, and he just had to go. We have to take responsibility for that.”

Despite the move ultimately failing, Bell has defended the Dockers’ decision to move in for the already-troubled Hogan over the 2018 off-season.

“The club used the compensation for Lachie Neale to bring in a big key forward,” he said.

“You look at what he has done since at GWS – and full credit to them, we’re talking a Coleman Medallist, brilliant on the weekend and a consistent goal kicker for them.

“I think the decision at the time for that type of player was right. It didn’t work, and so we have to be held accountable for that, including Jesse, which is what the narrative was at the time.

“I’m sure he would take accountability and responsibility for some of that as well. We tried a lot of things. Lots of different things.

“The days of treating everyone the same – they are long gone, and I thought we explored as many things as possible to make it work, and we couldn’t make it work. That’s on us.”

Hogan has touched on his time at Fremantle in the past, citing his disappointment with the way events transpired over the two-year span.

“That period of my life is something I'm going to carry with me forever,” Hogan told ABC Sport in 2024.

“I have a lot of resentment towards myself and how I handled it. I absolutely didn't help myself in a lot of regards just through being injured and not being able to get the best out of myself and you could feel the pressure building and not being able to hold up my end of the bargain was a lot.

“By the end of my time at Freo, my passion for the game was absolutely gone. I moved to the Giants at the back end of COVID thinking, I'll give it one last go.”

Now one of the competition's premier talents with the Giants, Hogan's time at the Dockers could be one of the great 'what ifs' in modern football.