According to the AFL, all wins in the home and away season are worth the same amount: four points.
It doesn't matter if it's a Carlton v Collingwood classic at the 'G in front of 90,000 or a battle for the spoon between tanking sides in the depths of winter.
The winner walks away with four points; the loser goes home with a regret or two. That is unless it's a draw, and both the teams are even.
Although there are only four points to go around, some games mean more than others. Sometimes it's about who you play, and sometimes it's about where you sit on the ladder.
For the Fremantle Football Club, the talk of Flagmantle, this week may be its biggest game of the year. After two close losses, the Dockers come into round three needing a win to keep in touch with the pack.
Fremantle isn't scheduled to face just any team this week, however. Instead, it faces its biggest rival, in one of the league's greatest rivalries.
Western Derbies have been fierce over the years, from the Demolition Derby of 2000 to Andrew Gaff's punch in 2018. To those in the West, the Derby is worth more than just the four points, with pride and bragging rights also on the line.
To get back on track, the Dockers must overcome a resurgent West Coast while trying to fix its biggest weakness — its ability to put points on the board effectively.
Scoring troubles
If you listen to enough press conferences, the word "connection" is bound to come up sooner or later. These days teams are broken into sub-units, mini-teams upon themselves.
How these units work together or connect is how successful teams win and battlers lose.
Nailing that kick from the midfield into the forward 50 might be the most important kick in footy.
After its loss to St Kilda, Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir stated the biggest issue was how it got the ball towards goals.
"The biggest one to come out of the review was the mid-forward connection, and making the most of our entries. I think that after half-time we had 40 entries for two goals and that's not going to get it done," Longmuir told Seven News Perth.
Longmuir reiterated this after the loss to 2022 wooden spooners North, saying: "We're just having to work so hard for our goals at the moment. Clearly."
These issues aren't new for Fremantle. Last year, the Dockers were in the bottom two for points per inside 50, scoring more efficiently than just the two-win North Melbourne side.
The issue becomes clearer when looking at how they kick it inside 50 from "the launch zone" — the area between 60 and 80m from goal. That's the zone that accounts for over half of all entries into the 50-metre arc. It's an area most teams prioritise when preparing for the year — ensuring that the forwards are setting up in the right spots and the upfield players know where to place the ball.
Last year, Fremantle performed significantly worse than league average on kicks of all lengths — from short chips inside the arc to long bombs to the square. The Dockers particularly struggled with longer kicks inside 50 — performing significantly worse than the competition.
These trends are getting even worse this year, albeit with a small sample size.
This ineffectiveness led Freo to have the fewest marks inside 50 per entry of any side. Usually, teams that struggle to mark the ball can crumb effectively, but the Dockers also were near the bottom for ground ball gets inside 50. While their forward 50 tackle pressure was solid, it wasn't enough to bridge the gap.
Last year's Dockers were the worst team at generating marks on leads inside 50, and the second worst for clunking contested marks.
This year, the Dockers have only been able to grab two contested marks inside 50, from James Aish and Jaeger O'Meara.
The entries inside 50 have felt predictable, both from the forward and midfield lines. The side has also only been able to generate two marks on lead inside 50 — unable to effectively find forwards on the move.
This indicates sides may have had extra time to scramble back to cover off their main targets, or they were too predictable going forward for the most part.
It's hard to unwind the source of these problems — the work of their forward line or the entries coming in from further up the ground. Over the past few seasons, the Dockers have tried a host of different names across both areas with little change to the outcomes.
It might not be a talent issue if Fyfe, Walters, Brayshaw, Hogan, Cerra and Serong can't move the needle much either way.
In fact, part of the answer just might come from their biggest strength.
Defend yourself
Despite their clear issues in effectively getting the ball through the big sticks, the Dockers still managed to win a final last year. How?
One word: defence.
Last year saw the Dockers turn into the league's most effective unit, frustrating teams to no end.
This year the results look similar, despite the two losses so far. Fremantle's back line, led by new captain Alex Pearce, has repelled attack after attack like a set opening batsman on a flat Perth Stadium wicket. They were almost impossible to score from when opposition sides had to work down the field, a testament to the disciplined principles and outstanding talent on that side of the ball.
The early results this year are almost as solid — sitting sixth for fewest points conceded per inside 50 defended despite losing both their games.
Fremantle has been one of the best sides at defending from their own half but has been unable to score themselves from defence. It leads to a stalemate, of games filled with the ball travelling back and forth without troubling the scorers.
Both last year and this year the Dockers have moved the ball relatively slowly and indirectly towards goal from their own defensive half. In both 2022 and 2023, they have been the second most indirect side when moving the ball up the ground from defence.
They've preferred to be cautious rather than rip off the bandaid when moving the ball. That helps the Dockers defend with ball in hand but contrastingly allows opposing sides to set up to deflect their attacks. In an era where more teams are attacking with gusto through the middle, the Dockers are going the other way.
That means it might not just be the connection going into the forward line — it might also be the connection going through the middle third of the ground.
Hope springs
Despite the two early losses, all hope shouldn't be lost by those wearing purple. The two Docker losses have come by a combined total of nine points and one contentious no-call on the siren. A couple of lucky breaks the other way or a delayed press of the clock by the timekeeper might see Freo at 1-1 or 2-0. The margins are extremely tight in the current AFL.
Few seasons are scuttled in the first week of April, especially when there are 21 more games of footy to play for all sides. As demonstrated last year, Fremantle's best football is finals-winning stuff — the football of a serious flag contender.
West Coast shapes as one of the hardest-to-read sides this year — coming off a lost season of injuries, illness and tactical issues. So far this year the signs are that the Eagles are closer to their form of two or more years ago than last season.
This year's first Derby shapes as a litmus test for both sides. If Freo can re-establish its connections around the ground, it'll also rebuild their finals credentials. If they can't, they'll have to watch the Eagles enter the finals picture.
