Have you ever left the house and had that nagging feeling you’d forgotten something? You go through the checklist in your head but you can’t think what it might be. Then you finally arrive at you destination and it hits you. It hit Fremantle. They’d forgotten to bring their midfield.

Ryan Crowley was left on the kitchen table, they’d dropped David Mundy in the driveway as they got into the car, Michael Barlow was still stuck in the disabled toilet and no one has been able to find Byron Schammer  in months - luckily they’d remembered to pack Paul Hasleby in the side pocket just in case.

Despite realising their mistake, there wasn’t much they could do about it so Mark Harvey hoped they could get by without one. It was only the Western Bulldogs on a short, narrow stadium - there was a good chance no one would even notice.

He was right. When they siren sounded and the ball was bounced, absolutely no one noticed Fremantle’s midfield. The Bulldogs had the ball out of the centre before you could say “Did we forget out defense too?” and into the arms of Brian Lake who kicked the opening goal of the match at big odds.

Fremantle have left the door open to kick off their September campaign with a home final, letting the Western Bulldogs get level with them on points through a sizable loss at Etihad Stadium. With senior Freo players dropping out right until the last minute, child services were almost called as the Dogs touched them up in the opening quarter. The game was all but over before the meat pies had been defrosted at the footy snack stall, with the Dogs kicking 9 goals to 3 in the opening quarter. Fremantle tightened up for the rest of the game but lacked the players to even keep things honourable, losing by 82 and vowing never to speak of the match again.

Last year was a bit of a bust and it can only be put down to one thing - with a new coach, the supporters put too much faith in him. They stopped working the magnetic board, coming up with the perfect match ups and killer moves and weren't prepared to yell out advice to the coach between quarters. Poor old Harves wouldn't have known what to do. So make sure this season you arrive at the game prepared and when you see Mark Harvey walking by, yell out your best ideas at the top of your voice to help him along.

The Dockers head back to the dank this week for the third leg of their residency at Etihad Stadium. The first leg went well with Fremantle upsetting the Blues before some unfortunate work in front of goals upset the second leg against Richmond. This time it will be against the Western Bulldogs who, in recent years, have, to put it politely, comfortably dealt with Fremantle’s attempts to beat them. The Dockers have managed to give the Dogs some grief over at The Dome though, picking up a couple of wins from five matches, including a 41 point win and an 83 point shellacking.