AFLW 2025: Fremantle focused on beating Adelaide - but finals spot could come at expense of West Coast Eagles

Fremantle coach Lisa Webb and midfielder Gabby Newton say they will push finals equations to the side and simply focus on beating Adelaide in the last game of the AFLW season. But if the cards do fall Fremantle’s way and they are able to scramble into the top eight in the league’s final game of the home-and-away season, it could come at the expense of cross-town rivals West Coast. The Dockers still have a mathematical chance of playing finals after their 44-point win over Richmond at Fremantle Oval on Saturday, but need other results to go their way if they are to conjure up a shock finals berth. Tenth-placed Fremantle are equal on points with three teams above them in the top eight race, but their paltry percentage of 82.2 is 20 per cent lower than their fellow finals contenders. With Carlton dispatching lowly GWS on Sunday, Fremantle now need the Blues to beat West Coast — who will be praying for a healthy Ella Roberts after the superstar missed their loss against the Swans through hamstring tightness — at Sullivan Logistics Stadium on Friday night. In the event of that happening, the Dockers would replace the Eagles in the top eight with a win over Adelaide next Sunday at Norwood Oval. If the Eagles were to triumph over Carlton this Friday, Fremantle would need Sydney to slip up at Essendon and then promptly beat Adelaide. Rather than get a headache over what other teams are doing, Webb said they would lean into the old cliche about controlling the controllables — in this case, toppling the Crows. “We need to rinse and repeat again, we’ve got plenty of things we need to work on,” Webb said. “We’ve got our eyes firmly set on a team that especially last year, we had some heavy losses against them. “We’re a far better and different team to last year, and I really look forward to the challenge of Adelaide, because they’re a team we’ve looked at from afar, but we’re really determined to make sure we put a little bit of that behind us and start moving forward.” Newton, one of the Dockers’ best against the Tigers after finishing with 28 disposals, seven tackles, five score involvements and 400m gained, said Fremantle wanted to avenge last year’s 37-point loss to Adelaide in the finals. “You know what? I think the fixtures worked out very well, definitely made a couple of key match-ups that are going to shape the finals for that weekend,” Newton said. “We all tuned into the Showdown, it was a great showing by Port and Adelaide, but we’ll focus in on what we need to do against them. “We obviously had a pretty disappointing game against them in the semi last year. We’ve definitely got a lot to play for but we can’t control other results. We can just control what we do.” Webb said she had not focused too much on the finals equations leading into the Richmond game, as she would prefer a clear head to coach. “I don’t get into that too much, to be honest. There’s scenarios, and I just have to stick to task,” she said. “I coach my best when I’ve got a really clear mind and focus on what the players need to do and how I can be best in the box. “If I’m crunching numbers, it’s probably not my best. There’s plenty of people here who are math geniuses and teachers, so they get to do all that. “We just needed to get the win, which was important, but also build on the work that we have been doing. It’s been pleasing. It’s certainly not a four-quarter performance yet, but we’re getting there.” Newton said they had not let the talk of what they needed to do to reach the top eight get to them ahead of the Tigers clash, and it would be more of the same in the lead-up to Adelaide. “In AFLW in general, you have to make the most of every game. We know, going into every season, you’ve got to make the most of it,” she said. “Certainly the position we’ve found ourselves in, it’s made it a bit more difficult than we’d like. But that external noise, we acknowledge it, but try to drown it out once it’s game day.”