Everything is under control. The purple Pearce powder preservation plan will pay off. Time to Restump Podcast the manic moments of mayhem against the Dees.

Straight off the top, quite simply, if Alex Pearce plays, we win that game and you can't change my mind.

We may have won plenty of games without the skipper in the past, but when the heat really goes on, we need the General back there organising and executing.

Did the Dees expose our vulnerabilities that we may not have known existed? Is our reliance on Alex Pearce a concern? As silly as it sounds, has constant winning wallpapered over our deficiencies or reliances?

We haven't faced a lot of adversity this season to date. We've had just a handful of challenges and our injured players rarely resembled a list.

The reality is Andy Brayshaw was down, Murphy Reid finally saw a tight tag and had little influence, Freddy was horribly absent, we were vulnerable down back, we wandered away at times from the selflessness that has served us so well, we suffered moments of complacency and yet we lost by just a kick.

To put it bluntly, the Dees played out of their skins and cannot play better than they did. We, on the other hand, can and will.

Tidy up of just one of Mason Cox's nightmare moments and we walk away with another 4-point package. However, it is preferable to get the lesson now rather than in September.

From this point on, in future meetings against Melbourne, Harrison Petty's name is in big black bold letters pregame on the whiteboard. He doesn't get to shed tears over some hurty words, garner widespread sympathy, play the taunting victim and be the catalyst for a pathetic rule change, and then come out and make a mockery of his own episode and play this wannabe fake tough guy character! You can't have it both ways and it was a little disappointing we allowed it. Alex Pearce would have rendered him irrelevant!

Anyway, we live, we learn, we look into the loss, lock in on the learnings, leverage the lessons and liquidate the lapses.

On some small level the loss alleviates the pressure a little. It removes any dangerous perception of invincibility that could have possibly internally crept in. It could work favourably as a grounding agent that will do us well heading into September.

Well, that's enough laundering of the language here. The truth is, other than from a mental perspective, the loss had no impact and it means very little. However, dismissiveness alone doesn't feed the bulldog. So, join us to continue the loss legitimising conversational gymnastics on the pod.

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It was rarely pretty and it took us a while, but we found a way to break the dog clog. Time to Restump Podcast the minor premiership securing win over Bevo’s Bullclogs.

Apparently Bullies coach Luke Beveridge had no specific plan or intention to ensure our forward 50 metre arc resembled an RSPCA adoption dog shelter! The crowding and clogging “just played out that way.”

Rightio Bevo, and bank robber Bill had no plan to roll the bank, he just donned the balaclava and shotgun to do his daily banking and it, “just played out that way.”

To be fair to the dogs though, once Aaron Naughton was ruled out, they had no option and their only chance was to implement that clogging strategy, whether they care to admit it was intentional or otherwise.

However, in doing so they actually did us a favour. If the dogs played their usual high offense game we would have destroyed them by half time, given their known struggles to defend and the cattle they had out. So, we were forced to endure a different contest, weather the pressure, adapt, persist and find alternate pathways to victory. Yes, it was predominantly ugly but we still manufactured moments of Milan catwalk worthiness.

The game gave Murphy Reid a taste of the close checking treatment he's likely to get more of and, unsurprisingly, he’s already made inroads into how to deal with it if his 23 possession second half is any indication.

The armchair dingbats taking a dislike to Paddy Voss simply don't understand the Freo system and the selflessly pivotal role he is performing. The sheer volume of cages he is rattling on and off the field points to the possibility he is at the peak of his pervasive and protective powers.

Is it no Bont, no dogs? Did Marcus Bontempelli have an off night? Or was it the engaging tactics of the imposing Hayden Young that put the clamp on the champ?

The effort and the dedication to the journey Oscar McDonald have undertaken to get to his career best game, is worthy of praise. However, while he superbly played his role, there's no confusion or cause for hesitation, Brennan Cox walks straight back into the team.

One man whose role and position are well and truly secure is Karl "Marx" Worner. He had the makeshift dogs forwards on a leash and ended up the highest rated player on the ground.

We ran the dogs into the ground, we chalked up our 18th win of the season and we got through unscathed.

We then watched Sydney scrape home over the Saints; we saw Hawthorn fall over the line again the Roos and the Josh Fraser revitalised Blues put the 3-peat seeking Lions to the sword! Everything is coming up Millhouse!

It's all getting very real! So, we need to come together as a collective, remain calm, be measured and have some composure... is what we'd call for if we were a boring, self-obsessed, joyless, egotistical, purist fan base! But we're not that rabble of a rudderless mob up the road! We get involved, we get loud, we enjoy every moment, celebrate every thrill and we ride this magnificent juggernaut to whatever end!

So, for all that type of hype tripe, dig in your heels, lock in your knees, hang on for dear life and join in the conversation to give and get a purple cheerful earful on the pod!

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If Andrew McQualter still wants to be a scalper, he'll have to turn to Freo's finals tickets! Time to Restump Podcast Saturday evening's walk in the Optus Stadium park.

Imagine being a west coast supporter and thinking you're an improved outfit. 12 scoring shots for the game, just 5 in the second half for 1 goal 4. Quite simply, they were putrid.

If Fremantle did anything wrong, it was gravely underestimating the sufficient level of complacency required to win. We could have implemented a player management strategy with a performance output made up of equal parts apathy and lethargy!

Pretty much other than the minor premiership securing 4 points, there was almost nothing to take out of that game. I mean it was a good win, and a win by 10 goals, but let’s be fair, we were up against a team of Richmond rejects, mid-season recruits and a guy who cries ‘free kick’ if someone goes within 6 feet of him!

Harley Reid has implemented his own social distancing policy. He rings his own free kick hot line when anyone breaches his self-designated safe space and lodges a complaint!

The reality is the game was never out of our control and by quarter time, despite us being the narrowest of margins behind, it went from a procession to a formality, before we let down to a ‘going through the motions’ routine.

Yes, Murphy Reid continued bedazzling us, Matty Johnson had arguably his career best game and Jye Amiss, with another 5 goals, showed he has well and truly arrived. But let’s ironically sing the praises of the unsung heroes.

Disco Nathan had a ripper of a game. Is it right to suggest he hasn’t the best right foot? But, on his left foot, unlike what left his right foot, a lot left right out of the middle. So, he did a lot right with his left, he left nothing in the tank and right now he’s in no danger of being left right out! (I can’t be the only one who is now bamboozled to a point of not knowing my left from my right?) Anyway, 2 goals, 7 score involvements, 11 possessions and a goal 3rd quarter, and plenty of defensive work from his 19 total touches from the wing was a pretty important contribution.

And the ultimate team man Paddy Voss! His selflessness was on display yet again with his all-round game having a greater impact than it suggests on paper. Add in his goal, his 7 score involvements, his 6 inside fifties and his shepherding of Shai Bolton’s goal and it puts substantial meat on those 11 disposal bones.

The good news just kept coming off the field with Murphy Reid signing on until 2032 and Hugh Davies dedicating his future to Freo by putting pen to paper. We cannot overstate how big an achievement securing the extension for Murphy Reid is. The system Fremantle has put in place, the culture they have built, the recruiting and list management they have conducted, the ignoring of the outside noise and backing in Justin Longmuir and the resulting ridiculously successful year we have so far put together, are all encompassing elements that enticed and landed Murphy Reid for longer. He didn’t initially want to come to Fremantle and now he doesn’t want to leave. That is a monumental feather in the Freo cap.

Well, Saturday night was fun but unfortunately the derbies have just lost their shine. Sadly, like they did to state of origin football in its former format, the West Coast Eagles have killed them off.

However, that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of purple to prattle on about on the pod! So, before we draft a docker design to deal with the dogs, feel welcome to wade into the west coast wrangle waffle water with us as we wrap up the weekend cake walk.

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