South Fremantle are looking to go back-to-back for the first time since 1953 and 1954, with their first match of the 2026 WAFL season kicking off against Swan Districts on Friday.
They set the bar high last year finishing on top of the ladder with 17 wins and just one loss, going on to defeat East Perth in the grand final by two points.
Now with a new year ahead of them, coach Craig White has upheld the importance of keeping a level head and wiping the slate clean to take his team all the way again.
He joined Sports Breakfast this morning.
“It’s always hard to balance that excitement and the joys of winning a grand final and then being able to switch on and get back to work and make sure we try to improve on what we did last year,” he said.
“We try to draw a line in the sand a month later from a success… We had our best and fairest a couple weeks after the grand final, so we kind of used the 21st of October as the line that we wanted to draw and we wanted to try and get back to the focus of improving our list and improving as a club.
“We didn’t start our preseason until the 1st of December and we only kind of got eight or nine sessions in to be able to make sure we gave the guys a decent break before they come back. And those eight sessions, you don’t get a hell of a lot done from a footy point of view. There’s a bit of conditioning and a little bit of footy.”
A heavy emphasis has been placed on contest work over the preseason, with White saying carrying a winner’s mentality throughout the whole season and not just the back end being a key takeaway from last year.
Victorious in both of their preseason matches against West Coast and West Perth, the expectations are high for the Bulldogs heading into the new season.
They booted over 100 points in both matches with their forward line showing promising signs for a big year.
“We felt like as a club when we were trending really well and having the winds back up week after week last year that we couldn’t get ahead of ourselves.”
“We’re acutely aware that it’s really tough to be able to back up what we were able to do last year and that it’ll be a new challenge. We don’t expect it just to be the same. We’ve had turnover within our list, we’re going to have to evolve as a playing group and we’ve got to be able to find different ways to win.”
South Fremantle lost two club legends over the summer with 2017 Sandover Medallist Haiden Schloithe and 2020 club Fairest & Best winner Zach Strom exiting after two very decorated careers with the Doggies.
The pair both played over 200 games at South Fremantle, with plenty of accolades to go with including multiple Fairest & Best’s for Schloithe and Club Leading Goalkicker in 2024 for Strom.
White and his coaching staff have big shoes to fill within the club without the experience of the premiership winning pair.
“They’re irreplaceable as such when you speak about their own individual records and what they were able to bring to the team, and just the presence that they also brought within the squad. They’re powerful personalities.”
“They’re both local players, played 200 games, both came through our junior programs… The opportunity for us to kind of replace them, you can’t just go out and recruit players to fill their spots. We’ve got to develop from within, and it’s going to be a really exciting opening month to this season to see which of our young players are able to step up.”
Two players looking to break into the league side in 2026 are Callum Copeland, who kicked three majors in their preseason match against East Perth, and Lucas Robinson who will be draft age this year.
“Copeland’s come off a very good preseason. He’s done his apprenticeship, he’s been a very good colts player and he played a whole season of reserves last year… Callum’s given himself the very best opportunity, he played well in the East Perth game a couple weeks ago and he’s right amongst it in the final squad this week.”
“Lucas Robinson, he’s one that’s only come into the squad a couple of weeks ago once the State 18s program came to an end and he’s a big boy, I like what I see there.”
“He went into the midfield after half time against East Perth and I think he had 17 possessions after the half. So I think his presence will be felt, if it’s not this weekend it will be very early into the season because I think he’s a ready-made league player and he’s going to have a huge career I think at the higher level as years go on.”
With a relatively healthy preseason under their belt, the Dogs are looking to have most of their premiership players up for selection this week.
White said he’s expecting to have 15 on the field, with fans seeing potentially four of five debuts to the league side this weekend.
Their clash with Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval kicks off at 2:30pm and can be heard on SportFM.
IMAGE: WA Football