Watching finals from the side-lines, celebrating award winners and saying goodbye to purple soldiers. This emotional roller coaster can get knotted! Time to Restump Podcast the assortment of sentiment.

As Fremantle fans, you’d think we’d be acclimatised to watching September from the side-lines… I mean we’ve done it 22 times in the last 30 years! But watching the finals this year and knowing how close we were to being a part of it… we’ve developed an itch that needs a scratch! We need a fix; we need a September transfusion; we need a finals injection to get the purple bloodstream pumping! But we’ll bide our time, do the hard yards once again and hope this time next year outcomes will be different.

Meanwhile, again at this time of year, we have to undertake the unenviable task of waving goodbye to numerous Docker diehards that dug deep over the duration. We sadly say sayonara and send off soldiers some who never saw any action, all of them devoid of September success.

The often unjustly maligned Matty Taberner, the ever-ready Ethan Hughes, the always jovial Josh Corbett, the sky scraping Sebit Kuek and the couldn’t quite get there Conrad Williams. All five deserve gratitude, but especially Tabs and Hughesy. They got everything out of themselves, emptied their tanks, they were part of the journey and played vital roles at times. Thanks fellas and enjoy whatever comes next in life.

To move to a brighter note we celebrated the Doig medal awards last night. Now it is safe to say it wasn’t exactly a short a night and awards weren't rare. And not to diminish the attached prestige to any accolade, but it seemed if you attended the gala and went home without some sort of medal or acknowledgement, you were stiff! But there is a lot to be said for professionalism and attention to detail and it was truly a magnificent night. If only we could be as thorough on the field as we were off it!

There were no surprises, Caleb Serong and Andy Brayshaw were always going to deservedly quinella the Doig and it was just a matter of which order.

The only shock that could have occurred on the night was if Josh Corbett didn’t win the best good bloke award! Never going to happen.

Josh Draper won the “stood out like a Beacon for all the right reasons” award. It was great to see, it was thoroughly deserved and we’re all pretty excited for him and us going forward.

Lukey Ryan won the Mi Casa Property Boutique Award. He got the most wins for metres gained in a single quarter, more than any other player. Don’t quote me on it as it hasn’t been confirmed... but I think he wins a house, courtesy of the magnificent Mi Casa crew.

Awards, delistings, finals, trades… plenty of purple to prattle on about. So, if you’re in need of a dose of docker drivel, drag up a davenport, dial in and dwell on our dubious determinations.

Enough of the nonsensical alphabet games… let’s get into it! Join us in the purple pod pool, the water is warm.

Support the show