Fremantle’s 32 most influential figures, Part III: Dockers pioneers and champions

From staff members working almost anonymously, to the board room, the coaches box and the on-field stars the fans fall in love with. The West Australian’s panel of experts Glen Quartermain, Craig O’Donoghue, Chris Robinson and Braden Quartermaine have ranked the 32 most influential figures in Fremantle’s 32-year history, steering the club’s men’s team to the precipice of a maiden premiership. 16. BEN ALLAN Ben Allan holds an incredible place in Fremantle history. Try finding another person at any club who has been a captain, coach, vice-president and has a medal named after them. It’s an amazing quartet of achievements. Allan made his name as a Hawthorn premiership star. The Hawks’ 1991 flag team included seven members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame but Allan beat them all to win the best-and-fairest that season. So when he chose to leave the Hawks to join Fremantle for their inaugural season, it was a massive coup. The Dockers appointed him as captain and from that moment on, any time the club needed help, Allan answered the call. He became an assistant coach after a knee injury prematurely ended his career. Then, after walking away from footy to build a different career, he returned to be caretaker coach after Fremantle sacked Damian Drum midway through 2001. The Dockers were 0-9 when he joined. They won two matches under his leadership. In 2005, he was elected onto the Fremantle board as the member’s representative. But that position quickly grew to becoming vice-president in 2008. His combination of footy and business acumen played a key role in the Dockers’ enjoying their most successful era from 2013-15, including a grand final and minor premiership. But his legacy didn’t stop there. Allan’s contribution to the club was further recognised with the naming of the medal for the player judged to be best on ground in a western derby. He’s a Fremantle icon. 15. DAVID WALLS Not many people have had more of on an impact on Fremantle’s football department without ever having kicked a footy for the club. And if the Dockers can win their maiden premiership in the next few years, David Walls will become part of the folklore and history down in Cockburn. As list boss, Walls is the chief architect of the club’s incredible list build that has seen them go from the bottom of the ladder to the best team in the league. It is not only his ability to nail top-end draft picks like recruiting Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw and Murphy Reid, but his nous for finding hidden gems throughout the football landscape. Whether it is Isaiah Dudley out of the SANFL, Karl Worner from East Burwood in Victoria or probably the most impressive of the lot – Josh Treacy as a rookie out of Cohuna – Walls has a knack for finding AFL talent. Walls first joined the Dockers as a recruiter in 2008, leading the club’s scouting team for several years before being appointed head of player personnel in 2020. He has since gone on to become one of the most in-demand men in football, with clubs wanting his services after watching from the outside what he has been able to build at the Dockers. And it’s not only finding talent which has been part of his incredible success, but also his ability to secure superstars such as Luke Jackson and Shai Bolton from other clubs in trades which have all worked for the Dockers, which have been incredible. 14. CALEB SERONG It is almost inevitable that Serong will finish up as one of the greatest Fremantle players of all time. Still only 25 and 147 games into his career, Serong already has the accolades to become a Dockers great, and it is arguably that he is yet to reach his peak. In only 12 western derby appearances, he has four Glendinning-Allan Medals as the best on ground, matching former Docker Paul Hasleby for the most ever. Serong has also won the past three Doig Medals as the club champion, matching the efforts of former captains Nat Fyfe and Peter Bell, with Matthew Pavlich the only Docker to have claimed more with six. The Victorian midfield has been named in the All-Australian side three times, is the club’s vice-captain alongside Andrew Brayshaw and still has an incredible eight years left on his contract at the harbour club. An almost instant fan favourite when he arrived with pick No.8 in 2019, Serong would establish himself as a star of the future when he won the AFL Rising Star Award in his first season. Since then, his game has gone from strength to strength. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the cleanest handlers of the ball in the AFL, which is matched by his hard-nosed nature and competitive spirit. Inside the four walls at Cockburn, he is a natural leader, with his training standards and professionalism helping to change the standards at the club, with their culture now the envy of the wider Australian sporting landscape as a result. 13. DAVID HATT David Hatt describes the formative years of the Fremantle Dockers as a “time of mixed emotions”. “Hard in lots of ways, but exhilarating in others,” the inaugural Fremantle CEO told The West Australian. Hatt and his chair Ross Kelly were charged with the unenviable task of producing a competitive AFL team on and off the field with one arm tied behind their backs. “There was a lot of expectation because Fremantle was expected to win because East and South Fremantle had been traditional successful,” he said. “It was hard in the sense that we were given nothing … We were given $750,000 to operate to be repaid within 12 months at one per cent higher than market interest rates. “Now we did all that and you know I was really pleased that I could be part of it. “It was a privilege of a lifetime in many senses, but it could have been so much easier. “There’s a great saying by John F. Kennedy that success has many fathers, failure has many orphans. “When Fremantle began becoming much more competitive in the early 2000s, you would have thought they come across some magic elixir. “I’d left by then, but the reality was the arrangements that we had with the WA Football Commission meant that we could actually retain some funds, operate at a profit rather than give all the money to the football commission and Ross Kelly is the person who actually made that change.” Hatt described the player rules as the “worst that any new franchise has been given in the AFL set up.” “West Coast was such a dominant force because they had player rules that were entirely different and very generous and we suffered as a result,” Hatt said. 12. PETER BELL Fremantle spent the early years of their existence being derided for players leaving. Then Peter Bell changed everything by returning to the club at the peak of his powers. Tony Modra had been the biggest previous name to join the Dockers, and while he was a rockstar, he was also 30. Bell left North Melbourne after two premierships, an All-Australian selection and as the club’s reigning best-and-fairest when aged just 24. That was a huge statement. Bell had been among the players who had left the club previously. He played only two games in Fremantle’s first season and was dumped amid a belief he was too slow. He made a mockery of that decision. Bell won the Doig Medal in his first season back at Fremantle, was appointed the captain the next year and instantly lifted the standards around the club. Under his leadership, the Dockers played in their first finals series during 2003 and then advanced to the 2006 preliminary final. Bell always won a heap of the ball, and if fans weren’t aware of his dominance, they got plenty of reminders because one man rang a bell every time he touched the footy. He won three Doig Medals, was picked in another All-Australian team and has been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. But Bell continued to have an impact at the Dockers after his playing career ended. He became Fremantle’s General Manager of Football in 2018 and played a massive part in building both the club and the playing list. 11. GERARD NEESHAM Chip and draw. Time and space. Water polo and hockey on an AFL field. Inaugural Fremantle coach Gerard Neesham’s philosophy has been described in a variety of colourful ways, but there is no confusion over its impact. VFL-AFL master coach David Parkin described Neesham’s style as being ahead of its time and an inspiration to many that came after him. He was sacked after four seasons and 88 games for 32 wins and 56 losses at a 36.36 per cent win rate but the foundations were laid through his commitment to Indigenous talent and a working-class mantra that binds the club today and he did it all with the most modest player list concessions ever handed to a start up AFL club. He joined the Dockers off the back of a decorated playing career and as a three-time WAFL premiership coach of Claremont. Speaking to long-time club physio Jeff Boyle on the club’s Bleeding Purple podcast, Neesham said his style was influenced by a conversation with legendary Australian hockey player and coach Ric Charlesworth. “I just happened to play a lot of team sport, whether it was water polo or hockey or basketball, and there were a lot of things happening in those sports that was not happening in Aussie Rules,” Neesham said. “When I got the chance in 1986 to (coach Claremont)…it was obvious that there were lots of ingredients (from other sports) involving taking possession in the backline. “But taking possessions, changing direction, counter-attacking and carrying the ball – they’re things that were standard for me from other sports. I brought it to Claremont first and endeavoured to bring it into the AFL as a benefit to our club, not as some gimmick. “Our results, bluntly, for the quality of the players we had, were pretty good as we were actually pretty hard to play against.” 10. CHRIS CONNOLLY Chris Connolly, coach of the Dockers from 2002 to 2007, arrived at a basket case and brought the Dockers respect. Known for his bold statements and ability to think outside the square, Connolly was also something of a chief PR man and fundraiser. In one season he attended 93 functions as part of a gruelling schedule to help grow the club, while he instigated the popular annual Starlight Purple Haze Game in 2003. “The thing that was clearly painted to me was that I’d be a club coach not just a football team coach, because the club was in diabolical financial trouble,” Connolly told Fremantle’s official history book. While he was required to wear many hats, the senior coach one fit him just fine. Inheriting a team coming off Fremantle’s worst ever season on the field in 2001, Connolly was also greeted by a skint support staff structure, a mountain of debt and internal fractures. He quickly took the Dockers to their historic first finals series in 2003 and later their first finals win, the 2006 semifinal victory over Melbourne. Connolly was a coach ahead of his time, instigating regular midfield rotations and the benching of star players – criticised at the time – which later become commonplace across the AFL. In early 2006, Connolly also made a powerful stand following the infamous Sirengate game against St Kilda in Launceston. After the umpires failed to hear the final siren before the Saints scored a behind to force a draw in comical and chaotic scenes, Connolly charged onto the field. “This is unacceptable. We want the four points. The Fremantle Football Club can’t lay down on this one,” Connolly roared after the match. Several days later, the AFL Commission overturned the result and gave the Dockers the win. 9. DALE ALCOCK Footy presidents get judged by the handful of massive decisions they’re required to make. They make a lot of small ones along the way, but the big ones are what the public truly remember. Dale Alcock made several massive calls which totally transformed the club. Sacking Ross Lyon with one year remaining on his contract showed incredible courage. Lyon led Fremantle to their only grand final and to their only minor premiership. But the Dockers had slid down the ladder, missed finals for four consecutive years and Alcock sensed it was time to change. Then he made another extraordinary call. CEO Steve Rosich left with Lyon. It’s fair to say losing a coach and CEO on the same day is a footy crisis and if you fail to find the right replacements, your club will be in real trouble. Alcock sat on the selection committees for both jobs and selected Justin Longmuir as coach and Simon Garlick as CEO. He hit the jackpot. Having been on the board when Fremantle made the grand final, Alcock knew what footy success looked like and paved the way for the current run. Alcock also oversaw dramatic change off the field. He was president when Fremantle moved games to Optus Stadium and when they shifted their headquarters to Cockburn. They were key moments in history. Then, when COVID threatened the financial future of all clubs, he gave the Dockers a $700,000 house as a raffle prize for members who remained signed up. He put his money where his mouth was.

Fremantle’s 32 most influential figures, Part III: Dockers pioneers and champions

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