Derby 63

They have a No.1 pick with a temper. We have a Rising Star, top spot, and four derby wins in a row. Let’s go.

Fremantle 1st on the ladder, 16-2. Minor premiership all but sealed. Nine wins from nine at Optus in 2026, average margin 36 points. Three clear of Sydney.

West Coast 16th on the ladder, 4-14. Nine of the past 10 derbies lost, including the last four. Nothing to lose, and they know it.

The Adelaide mob likes to claim that the showdown is the best rivalry fixture, but they're dreaming if they think that it compares to the Western Derby. This is a rivalry built on three decades of mutual, unshakeable dislike. The old money against the new club, The chardonnay sipping elite against the southern battlers, two sets of supporters who share a city, a stadium and absolutely nothing else.

It's a great time to be a Freo supporter, sitting 3 games clear on top of the ladder, winning games we have no right to win by only playing a quarter or two of footy and just generally tearing the hearts out of other clubs. Making it even better is seeing the Eagles languish down the bottom of the ladder and struggling to get wins on the board. Such has been the growth of Fremantle this year that we can afford to rest a few players every week and we've got talent across the lines, just waiting in line like it's the Zanzibar in the early 2000s.

Onto the game, Harley Reid is, without question, West Coasts best and most dangerous player, which really says a lot about the rest of the rabble they have in that side. Statistically very similar to Murphy Reid, its long been questionable whether he is even the best Reid playing in Perth at the moment. Regardless, he occasionally pulls out some moments of brilliance and if anything or anyone was going to get in the way of 5 Derby wins in a row, he's likely to be involved.

Wagner has been added to the side, and the versatile Docker has previously loomed as Fremantle’s designated run-with option on Reid, and the assignment suits him perfectly: a tight, relentless, deeply irritating presence who does not care about disposal counts and cares enormously about ruining someone else's evening. Fremantle are widely expected to target Reid heavily. West Coast coach Andrew McQualter has said publicly that his side has worked on ways to support Reid if the tag comes. The fact that they have had to spend the week workshopping it tells you everything.

Three changes for the Dockers. Losing Hayden Young to illness and Jaeger O’Meara to an ankle is unwelcome, and Brennan Cox is being managed with bigger things in mind. But we get Shai Bolton back from a hand injury for a derby, under lights, in front of a full house, which is the football equivalent of handing a pyromaniac a box of matches and pointing him at a fireworks factory. Oscar McDonald comes in and will have his hands full with Waterman and those developing West Coast forwards. Meanwhile, they lose Liam Baker to suspension and brought in 3 players you've probably never heard of.

Derbies do not respect ladder positions, and this is precisely the sort of fixture where a bottom-four side with nothing to lose throws itself at a flag favourite and makes a horrible mess of everyone’s evening. McQualter has publicly declared his team is hunting our scalp, and a West Coast outfit playing with freedom is more dangerous than its record suggests, five of their seven recent losses at Optus Stadium have been by under 25 points. Jake Waterman has kicked eight goals in his past three meetings with Fremantle and remains a genuine threat. Reid will get his moments regardless of who runs with him. And there is always the derby X-factor: the spot fire, the melee, the umpiring decision that turns a comfortable evening into a nervous one. Complacency (and maybe poor kicking) is the only opponent capable of beating this Fremantle side tonight. Fremantle by 30