Ponder the Squander

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.