WAFL Premiership coach Tony Micale believes as Fremantle’s young squad gets older, they’ll be more comfortable in high-pressure situations like yesterday’s must-win clash against Port Adelaide. 

Fremantle came into the weekend needing two results to play into their hands to keep their finals hopes afloat – a loss from Carlton, Hawthorn or the Western Bulldogs and a win against Port Adelaide. 

Just minutes before the bounce, the first part of the equation fell their way, with St Kilda knocking off Carlton by two points. All the Dockers had to do was beat the Power and they’d be in. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for the Purple-clad side – with their finals entry denied after a 20-point defeat against Port Adelaide on their home turf. 

The Dockers took an eight-point lead into the first break but the Power chipped away at that lead while the Dockers succumbed to the pressure of the situation. 

Speaking on Monday morning Micale compared the match’s stakes to those of finals, and believes Fremantle is ‘a bit off’ in terms of handling finals-like pressure at the moment.

“That was a final yesterday. The pressure in that game by both teams was finals pressure and that was what I’ve always been concerned about,” he told SportFM.

“They’re gonna grow and they’re gonna mature. There’s no doubt about that. The younger ones, the players that you’re talking about that fumbled. 

“The signs were evident to me in terms of going into finals and playing that real contested brand of footy that they were gonna get found out and they got found out yesterday. 

“When you get to big games, you’ve got to step up. They’re just teetering on there. For mine, they’re gonna progress. They’re gonna go forward because they’re gonna mature.“

Fremantle’s loss and denial of a finals berth hurt more for the Dockers’ faithful given they slid from third to ninth within the space of four rounds. 

The average losing margin for the last 10 games was 10.25 points – the closest being a 1-point loss against Essendon in Round 21.

Micale says Fremantle’s descent down the ladder comes down to them simply not playing the way they needed to. 

“Their whole purpose was to go and play their way, play that game like a final in the way that they did and they’ll get the right result,” 

Fremantle people can be disappointed, but at the end of the day, they lost five of their last seven games and they lost their last four. 

“We saw in those games, and I go back to a couple of weeks ago where they got beat by GWS, that there were situations where players didn’t accept their responsibility. They didn’t do their job.” 

Naturally, Fremantle was hampered by injuries to key players entering the final rounds of the season – losing skipper Alex Pearce, Josh Treacy and ruck Sean Darcy. 

Additionally, breakout Docker Hayden Young was benched with a calf issue during Sunday’s match. 

While these are certainly a factor, opportunities to win and fix on-field issues have also contributed to their season’s premature ending. 

“They’ll complain about injuries, and I’m not stepping away from the fact that Pearce has been a big loss to them. There’s no doubt about that,” said Micale.

“Young copped the injury yesterday that he copped at a critical stage, had an impact on Fremantle. 

“Regardless of all of those things, there were still opportunities there, and there are little things that you need to address through the course of the year. 

“You can’t get to the end of the year and think all those things are going to fall into place if you haven’t been hammering it through the course of the year.”

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