A Six-Pack Of IPA (Interesting Points, Allegedly): Fremantle Dockers produce a century-first comeback feat

Comeback kings Fremantle have overcome fourth-quarter deficits of 13 points or more in each of their past three wins, making them the only AFL team to achieve that feat this century. The Dockers rallied from 14 points down early in the final term against St Kilda before coming back from a 13-point three-quarter time deficit against Hawthorn and producing last weekend’s stunning 22-point turnaround late against Collingwood. It’s just the 10th example of any club having three such fourth-quarter comebacks across an entire season since the turn of the century. Before the past month, Freo had trailed at three-quarter time in 50 matches in the Justin Longmuir era – and won just three of them. THREE FOURTH-QUARTER COMEBACKS FROM 13+ POINTS DOWN IN A SEASON - THIS CENTURY Pressure is a privilege A look at the final 15 minutes of Fremantle’s wins over the Magpies and Hawks tells a tale of one side ramping up the pressure and the other crumbling under the weight of it. Freo’s pressure factor – a Champion Data metric that takes into account how much time and space an opposition player has – climbed to 210 in contrast to Hawthorn’s 187 over the closing stretch, while the Dockers enjoyed a 208-173 edge over the Pies in crunch time on Sunday. It marked a decent bump on Fremantle’s season average of 179 as the WA club ratcheted up the intensity. Plumbing the depths It’s been almost six decades since an AFL/VFL side suffered more losses across a 90-game stretch than the current West Coast outfit. The Eagles are 11-79 since late 2021, matching the loss total of North Melbourne (2020-24) for the most defeats in a 90-game patch in the AFL era. You have to go back to the mid-to-late 1960s to find a more damning stretch, with Fitzroy at one point having a run of 8-82 that incorporated the league’s most recent winless season in 1964. Derby demolition? Bookmakers are expecting a comprehensive result in this week’s western derby, with TABTouch drawing up the most lopsided odds for a local showdown as far back as their records go to 2013. Fremantle are considered a 50.5-point favourite, comfortably surpassing the 42.5 points they were favoured by for the second derby of 2022. That day resulted in a 24-point Dockers victory. Freo right at home As well as being near-unbackable favourites, Fremantle also have history on their side in the rare Saturday afternoon derby timeslot. There’s only ever been six Saturday arvo derbies and the Dockers have won them all, with the most recent game in that slot a seven-point thriller in 2014 that saw Stephen Hill produce a 32-disposal, three-goal masterclass. 500 up for Ross Ross Lyon will this week become the 24th person in AFL/VFL history to be involved in 500 matches as a coach and player combined. The bad news? He’s the only man in that club who hasn’t been up on the premiership dais on grand final day. Lyon last week went past Nathan Buckley (498 games) for the most combined appearances as a player and coach without tasting grand final success.