For a fleeting moment there was a cup in the cabinet, an accolade in the armoire, a plaque in the pool room. Time to somehow Restump Podcast the split-second surrendering of the silverware.

Where do you possibly start? And of the many review perspectives that dominate your lens, which one do you look through first?

I'm not sure we've ever experienced a feeling of absolute numbness post-match before and, as a rusted-on Fremantle fan, that's a big call. We know despondency, we’ve felt a sense of hopelessness more often than I care to recall, agony, exasperation... but never a feeling of outright numbness, bordering on paralysis. Who knew there was one more Freo-fuelled emotive feeling they had up their sleeve for us?

It was an amazing grand final and an unforgettable experience, but it was the absurd speed of the feeling that went from ‘the 32-year drought was over’ to ‘hey, look at that, Brissie secured the 3-peat.’ It was a ruthless four-minute period, with no time to catch your breath. It left fans stunned and distraught, unable to immediately comprehend what had just happened.

The purple platoon was good enough, it was tough enough and it handled the occasion well beyond what many of us thought it may. But for whatever reason or reasons, we each deem pivotal, we somehow walk away empty-handed.

Was it selection? Did fatigue play its part? Have we just lost our second grand final due to inaccuracy? Josh Treacy being robbed of a mark or his bamboozling blunder? Did we go into safe mode far too soon? Was it a lack of composure late? The broken rules around the inexplicable use of Wharfie Time?

For mine, every moment plays its part, but the overriding reason for somehow managing to squander the premiership was Alex “the difference” Pearce. The tragedy of his exit from the game early into the third quarter trumped all moments. It not only allowed Logan Morris off the chain to severely damage us; it allowed the Brisbane Lions to play with more flowing freedom.

It’s credible to claim the purple chalice would be courier-bound for Cockburn had the captain continued clear of the calamity.

And that brings us to the question: is our reliance on Alex Pearce ironically our Achilles heel? Admittedly, Brennan Cox’s absence wasn’t ideal, but with the ageing and admirable Luke Ryan and second or third defensive banana Oscar McDonald doing their better work alongside the skipper, have we some issues that need a conversation?

However, the doom and gloom will be temporary, and while we won’t see the silver cup, we can see the silver lining. We’ve had a remarkable year, we’ve been the best team in the competition, we’re a young list and on the cusp of a decade of success. We’ve got some areas needing attention but, hey, who hasn’t? What we will get out of the adversity we overcame during the finals series will be enormously dividend paying beneficial.

The gratitude for the season is slowly but surely beginning to displace the pain of the loss.

In any case, we will regroup, we'll reassemble, we'll suit up, stump up and go around again next year. But we just need a moment, a processing period, to collect and organise our thoughts, to come to terms with what was, and then, in the blink of an eye, what wasn't. We all need some time, just not of the Wharfie variety.

For one final occasion this year, let’s talk through the trauma and process the pain before we pivot to probe the positives, procure perspective and praise the purple posse for their practically perfect 2026 period on the pod.

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It doesn't matter how you get there — the direct path, the scenic route, maybe you escaped from jail — you just have to get there. The Swans lulled us into a false sense of minimum security, but we broke out! Time to Restump Podcast just our second-ever successful preliminary final.

Thirteen years after defeating the Sydney Swans in a preliminary final to partake in our first grand final, we've delivered a repeat of the feat.

We'd be lying if we said we weren't all bewildered at our performance early Friday evening, but we settled and turned it into a breath-holding, blood-pumping, beautiful night!

To be brutally honest, celebrations momentarily aside, we may have been fortunate it was the Pullman five and not the Pullman three or four. We really only just got there in the end. Add a Chad Warner and/or an Isaac Heeney into the mix and things quite possibly may have been devastatingly different. But they went there, things weren’t different and we’re off to Grand Final!

We matched the Swans' pressure, but they handled it far more effectively than us. We continue to be susceptible to high pressure, and it can be the key to our undoing.

Was there a Telstra or Optus outage in the area? It was constant communication breakdown early. Oscar McDonald and Luke Ryan, and Jye Amiss and Josh Treacy, were incommunicado. Connectivity and cohesiveness were replaced with confusion, finger-pointing and second-guessing.

There were some conspicuous absentees within our 50 metre arc and it got to a point where we eventually had to call on the SES to conduct a search party for the missing tall forwards.

But while efficiency wasn't front and centre, we were winning most of the numbers, just not the ones that definitively count.

Thankfully, you don't have to be better than your opponent all night; you just have to be better for longer. You just have to be in front when it matters most and, as we have done way more often than not this year, we were.

Moments of magic can sometimes make the difference, and that's when the magic moment-makers made their moves.

We could almost attribute the remarkable win to Hayden Young's absurd goal after the three-quarter-time siren. Not because it put us within range, but because of the much-needed belief it instilled.

Jye Amiss somehow managed his moment of ridiculousness, Shai Bolton successfully let go from 50, and then Paddy Voss entered with his moment of absolute mastery. Stiff-arming a 14-year almost 300-game stalwart defender and then perfectly executing the banana to goal, will enter the history and histrionics books. It'll be one of those precious moments we'll talk about forever.

We're the Fremantle Dockers! We'll never abandon our inherent unconventionality, but that's what makes us eternally exciting. We don't do boring, regimented monotony! Flawlessness is for the fundamentalists! What is finishing first without flair and heart failure along the way?

We’re now off to the MCG to play on the final Saturday in September for just the second time. But before we all roll into the Melbourne concrete-colosseum jungle to take on the Lions, there’s plenty of time for our usual inconsequential and insignificant nonsense on the pod.

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Hopefully the boys light up the SCG and don’t be so reckless, like they were against the Hawks. We’ll be downhearted if Errol gets a hold of us! We’re in a prelim final! With memory flashbacks to 2013 it’s time to Reyne on Sydney's parade again and Restump Podcast the battle to the big dance.

We’ve done the work, we’ve secured the results and, while we took the scenic route, we deserve our spot in the preliminary final against the Sydney Swans tonight.

We’re going in with an unchanged line up but are Jaegar O’Meara and Chris Scerri along for a little more than the ride? Could there be a late change?

The Swannies have obviously been through the wringer, now losing Callum Mills and Harry Cunningham on top of the Pullman Five! However, that in itself, is a danger for us as there truly can’t be any genuine expectations on them, regardless how hard JL tries to claim underdog status.

Being free of expectation can throw up some unpredictability. They have gotten further than anyone thought they would, so the shackles are off. This is a free hit for the Swans to take and we need to be well aware of it.

Straight away three factors come to front of mind with initial thoughts on the game. Complacency, pressure and Errol.

Our Freo boys are only human and no matter how hard they try and how often they tell themselves otherwise, there has to be some level of thought attributed to the enormous names missing from Sydney’s team. Too many of those thoughts could have us on the back foot and, in a preliminary final, it’s a position we just can’t afford to be in.

Pressure has at times been our kryptonite. We can be susceptible to it, we know it, the players know it and the entire league knows it. Sydney’s only real chance at beating us comes in the form of maniacal pressure and you can bet your knackers it is exactly what they will try to bring. Although Murphy Reid might not be able to stake that bet!

Errol Gulden is Sydney’s key to the grand final car. Their hopes rest so much on his shoulders. Charlie Curnow and Logan McDonald and Hayden McLean don’t get the silver service if we can curtail Errol’s influence. But that is easier said than done. It’ll be a task performed by committee but you’d imagine Matty Johnson might not have gotten too much shuteye the last couple of nights.

It sounds simple but it ever never is. In fact, given what has happened to the Swans, or what they’ve caused themselves, for us it seems too good to be true. And when something seems too good to be true, concerningly more often than not, it is.

We’re two and two against the Swans in finals and we’re one preliminary final each. We’ve only been to the SCG three times since 2019 while the Swannies have had to come to Optus on eight occasions against us.

However, the reality is none of whatever has occurred in the past matters. Our 2026 form against the Swans means didley! We’re going in with a massive advantage and we really should just be winning. There will be no excuses if we don’t and the fallout will be loud! Given the circumstances and the match ups, as scary as it is to say, it is just difficult to contemplate we don’t win tonight.

There is something that feels very uneasy about going into a preliminary final comfortable and confident. So, as we’re just hours away, let’s rekindle the familiar feeling by throwing some nervous logs on the anxiety fire to heat up the tension on the pod.

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