LIGHTS, SIRENS, AND A TOOTHLESS DOG

It’s emergency services Lights and Sirens night at Optus Stadium, which is fitting, because there’s a good chance of an emergency unfolding in the Bulldogs’ forward line. No Naughton. No Darcy. No hope.

Fremantle 1st on the ladder, 17-2.Unbeaten at Optus Stadium in 2026, ten from ten. A second minor premiership within touching distance. Coming off a 70-point derby demolition in which we kicked eleven second-half goals to one.

Western Bulldogs, chasing a top-six finish. Three straight wins, the latest a 57-point stroll past what remains of Richmond. Travelling west for their final away trip of the season, somewhere over the Nullarbor it presumably dawned on them that they forgot to pack any key forwards.

It’s the Club’s Lights and Sirens Round on Friday night, honouring the emergency services workers who keep this state running, and we’d like to formally extend our gratitude for the work they do every day and the role they play in our community.

Now, let’s dish out some hard truths for our visitors. Aaron Naughton is out. The spearhead who has carried their attack all season has been managed out of the trip to his home state with lingering soreness, which must sting doubly for a Perth boy who grew up dreaming of kicking bags at this ground. He joins Sam Darcy, the 211-centimetre cheat code the Dogs built their future around, who remains sidelined. That is both of their genuine talls gone against the stingiest defence in the competition. Beveridge will cobble something together, he always does, usually involving a midfielder pretending to be a forward, a washed up lobster and some bloke called Bontempelli. Alex Pearce and the returning-to-form Oscar McDonald, fresh off blanketing Jake Waterman in his 100th game, will be licking their lips.

Meanwhile, at the top of the ladder, the contrast is almost embarrassing. Fremantle’s injury report this week reads like a wellness retreat brochure. No fresh concerns from the derby. Hayden Young returns from the illness that kept him out last week, slotting straight back into the deepest midfield in the AFL. Brennan Cox continues to be managed with September in mind, the luxury of a club planning for finals rather than scrambling for them and McDonald holds his spot as a result. When one team is resting players for the finals and the other is losing its best forward to soreness, you don’t need Champion Data to tell you which way the river is flowing.

The recent history is ours too. Fremantle have won the last three against the Dogs, including the Round 8 game at Marvel earlier this year that told you everything about this team’s character: the Bulldogs jumped us early, Naughton took a couple of contested screamers, the Melbourne media began drafting their ‘Freo flat-track bullies’ columns and then the Dockers kicked seven unanswered goals either side of three-quarter time and won by 12. Before that, we beat them by 15 at Marvel in Round 24 last year (the afternoon Murphy Reid all but sealed his Rising Star) and by 16 at Optus earlier in 2025. Yes, there was a 67-point horror show at Marvel in 2024 that we all agreed never happened. Nobody mention it. Moving on.

This Bulldogs side comes in feeling pretty good, they’ve won three on the trot, they’ve won four of six outside Victoria this year, and their midfield isn’t too shabby. Ed Richards in career-best touch, the Bont is genuinely elite and they’ve got good support in Sanders and Kennedy. Bontempelli remains the kind of player who could win a game on one leg, which is convenient, because at various points this season that’s roughly what he’s had to work with. If the Dogs are to pull off the upset, it will be through the middle: win the clearances, control tempo, keep the ball away from our forwards, and pray that a stand-in forward line kicks a career night. It is not impossible, just very unlikely.

Because here is the truth of it: this Fremantle team is playing football from another postcode. Jye Amiss kicked five in the derby and has 31 goals from his past 11. Murphy Reid picked up the Glendinning-Allen medal with what’s becoming an average night with 26 touches and a goal and has cracked 25 disposals in four of his last six. Treacy and Voss are sharing the load up forward like a pair of nightclub bouncers taking turns. The defence hasn’t conceded a hundred points at home all year. And the scary part, at least if you cheer for anyone else, is that the second halves keep getting better. Eleven goals to one after the main break last Friday. A hundred points after half time against Sydney three weeks ago. Whatever Longmuir is putting in the oranges, the AFL should probably test them.

So here we are. A sold-out-ish Friday night at the Fortress, a slight chance of rain, cold air, a Bulldogs side missing its two most important forwards, and a Fremantle team one win from having the minor premiership all but wrapped with three rounds to spare. The Dogs will have a crack, Beveridge sides always do, and the Bont will do at least two things that make you swear in admiration. But ten from ten at home doesn’t become ten from eleven on Friday night. The emergency services will be honoured, the lights will flash, the sirens will sound. For the Bulldogs’ forward line, sadly, no amount of first aid will help.

Freo by 50.