Last season’s Freo-fall – no reigning minor premier in the AFL has ever fallen so far, from first to 15th – had the Dockers marked as something of a preseason enigma. This was a 4-18 team in 2016, for sure, but it had talent returning that wasn’t too far off the profile of a finals contender.

Then the first two rounds happened. A home loss to Geelong and a particularly dispiriting 89-point shellacking at the hands of Port Adelaide had pegged Fremantle as lower-end of the ladder. But in the way that football turns on a weekly dime, the Dockers upset the reigning premiers last Saturday, showing the kind of verve and toughness usually associated with the Dogs.

Coach Ross Lyon, starting to feel the squeeze of the media cycle over the last fortnight for advocating a style of play that was out of date, was admirably measured in his reaction to the victory.

Ross Lyon: game plan still working.

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer, does it?” Lyon said post-match. “But I thought there was a bit to like in there. I’m not sure the game has changed that dramatically in 12, 13 months. In fact I know it hasn’t.”

Fremantle star Nat Fyfe played in his first winning side since the qualifying final of 2015. Speaking to Inside Sport, the newly-minted club captain said that Lyon had taken back control after last year. “From the feedback of our leadership group, and Ross’s own self-analysis, it has been determined that the best course of action is for him to be in the driver’s seat, coaching from the front as he has done for the majority of his coaching career,” Fyfe said. “He is paid to be the lead man, and he is doing a great job at the moment.”

With 33 disposals against the Bulldogs, Fyfe played his usual influential hand in the match, as did other Docker veterans David Mundy and Stephen Hill. But Fremantle has had a notable injection of youth, including two debutants over the weekend, and Fyfe says recent times have cleared the way for some reinvention. “The natural hierarchy in people’s minds has been shattered somewhat. I’m seeing growth from our 22- and 23-year-old guys.”