Fremantle midfielder reveals ‘the challenge’ Dockers must face after winless start

Jaeger O’Meara, a midfielder for Fremantle, has stated that in order for the Dockers to overturn their winless start to the 2025 Australian game League season, they need to find a method to play their style of game throughout all four quarters.

After suffering consecutive losses to Geelong and Sydney, the Dockers are currently ranked seventeenth on the list. Late-game mistakes proved to be costly for the Dockers. After suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Cats by 78 points in Round 1, Fremantle then suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Swans, in which they blew a chance to take the lead. This year has been a rude awakening for a team that was predicted to climb the ladder, and it has been just that. Although O’Meara acknowledged that the first few rounds have served as a wake-up call, he stressed that the team continues to have faith. Despite the unpleasant beginning, he acknowledged that they had made improvement by pointing to the fact that their loss to Sydney was a relatively close one. “It feels like we’ve had a bit of a punch in the face,” O’Meara remarked, as reported by Zero Hanger. “It feels like we’ve been hit in the face.” “We had a really good pre-season and felt like we’re building some blocks in terms of where we want to go and where we want to get to.”

O’Meara emphasised how important it was for them to keep their playing style all the way up until the final siren, which is something that they had not yet accomplished. The fact that the club has lost five of their past nine matches when they were leading at the three-quarter mark is evidence that they have not been consistent enough to finish games. He accepted this fact.

“We just weren’t good enough for long enough, so that’s the challenge for us — to be able to sustain the type of footy we want to play for four quarters,” he explained to reporters. “There were some moments in the game that we’d like back, but we’ve reviewed it now and we’ll move on and get into West Coast this week.”

However, O’Meara maintained his optimism and brought attention to the fact that the Dockers came this close to winning against Sydney.

“Obviously, we haven’t got off to the start that we’d like, but if it [the game] went for a second longer, and Jye [Amiss] takes that mark, siren goes a second later, potentially we win,” he said to reporters. “It’s a good step forward in terms of where we were in Round 1, but we’ve got a lot of steps to go.”

Although it has been clear that the Dockers have struggled at crucial moments, O’Meara has highlighted the importance of maintaining composure and has urged the players to maintain their confidence and support themselves.

These scenarios have also been practiced by us during the course of the summer. His statement was, “I do not believe that progression is always linear.” When we are in those scenarios, we want to be in a position where we have the opportunity to win the game… The comfort level of that will increase for the boys.

The Dockers have now lost six consecutive matches dating back to the previous season, which has increased the amount of pressure that they are under to turn things around in the Western Derby that will take place on Sunday against West Coast.