Three decades or so of underachievement means it's going to take a club a bit more than usual to convince the sceptics of its credentials.
That's been Fremantle's lot for most of its existence. Fair enough, too, given the Dockers in 31 completed seasons haven't won a premiership, played in only one Grand Final, and only two seasons ago missed finals after sitting equal second with four games remaining.
But that time has now surely passed for even the crustiest of cynics. Because it's almost impossible to do any more to underline one's premiership claims than Justin Longmuir's side has done so far in 2026.
Saturday's super-impressive dismantling of reigning premier Brisbane on its usually formidable Gabba home deck was an 11th straight win (already a club record). The only game lost this season was the first against Geelong at Geelong after the Dockers had at one stage led by 35.
This is no temporary roll, either. Since midway through last season, Freo has won 23 of its last 27 matches, and three of those four defeats have been by 11 points or less. The next two best-performed clubs over that same stretch, Geelong and Sydney, are three and four wins respectively behind that tally.
Indeed, the more you think about it, the less reason to have any reservations about the Dockers' capacity to win the premiership, particularly given in their current form they'd be odds-on to get to the MCG on Grand Final day with two home finals as the pathway.
Even Ross Lyon's side which came within 15 points of Hawthorn on Grand Final day in 2013 didn't have that luxury, having to beat Geelong at the Cats' own ground first in a qualifying final. And his 2015 version, which did earn a home qualifying final (which it won) then came up against a formidable Hawthorn line up on its way to a famous premiership hat-trick.
That's what Brisbane is aiming to do in 2026, of course, another reason Freo's 25-point away win over the Lions was so significant. Longmuir's Freo hadn't beaten Chris Fagan's Brisbane at the Gabba in three previous attempts, and its last loss to the Lions had been a 10-goal thumping.
I'm not writing Brisbane off just yet, but you'd have to concede at 6-6 and with a host of players injured or out of sorts, they're not looking anything like the force Hawthorn still was in 2015. Indeed, "superteams" are looking more and more like a historical relic as flags get harder to win and take a greater toll when they are won.
And Brisbane might just have been the last team Fremantle needed to reassure itself it could handle. Sydney? The Dockers and Swans have been neck and neck lately, their last three meetings decided by an aggregate of just 15 points.
Geelong? As we said, Freo should have won that first game this season, and get the Cats at home in a couple of weeks after the bye. Hawthorn? The Dockers beat them three weeks ago and have won eight of their last nine clashes with the Hawks.
As much as the quality (or vulnerability) of its peers is helping Fremantle out in 2026, however, so is Longmuir's long-term view of building this now formidable-looking outfit being vindicated.
In his seventh year as coach, the former Docker forward has only seen his team's performance recede in one season.
He's worn plenty of flak at times about an overly-defensive outlook. But Longmuir has consistently talked about the Dockers' adding more positive strings to their bow. And they have. Just look at the numbers.
From 2023 to midway through this season, Fremantle's ranking for points scored has gone from 14th to 10th to ninth to seventh. Their efficiency improved markedly, too, ranking 13th for scores per inside 50 three years ago but fifth currently.
Align those current standings to rankings of first in four key defensive categories: points against, opposition scores per inside 50, and points against from both turnovers and clearance, and you have a terrific symmetry, the sort of balance every coach desperately craves.
Fremantle's 15.13 (103) against the Lions was the fifth time in the past six games the Dockers have topped the ton and the eighth time all season. They only reached that mark six times in the entirety of the 2025 season, and ditto 2024 and 2023.
Saturday's win was the perfect demonstration of this version of Fremantle's forward potency, Jye Amiss, Josh Treacy and Patrick Voss booting 11 goals between them. It wasn't just about the tallies either.
Where some forward group's talls can get in each other's way, this trio has a pretty seamless look about its patterns, Treacy the man mountain and terrific contested mark, Amiss the good mover and mark on the lead, and Voss the emotional barometer who can sense when a spark is required and also play a defensive role on opposition rebounders when required.
Throw in medium and small forwards with defensive pressure as well as goalkicking skills like Sam Switkowski, Shai Bolton, and Isaiah Dudley, then on-ballers who can also hit the scoreboard hard like Murphy Reid and you have an imposing forward set-up indeed.
Now consider that group alongside a long-effective group of backmen, plus a deep midfield that had it all over Brisbane for impact on Saturday even without the presence of the critical parts of the engine Caleb Serong and Hayden Young.
If there are any weaknesses in this list, it's getting increasingly hard to find them. Not to mention any lingering traces of mental fragility. This team keeps proving itself repeatedly, whatever the circumstances and whoever the opponent.
You can't do more as a premiership aspirant than that. And I think we're now at the point where any remaining scepticism about the idea of a Fremantle flag is more about denial than reality.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.
