Fremantle Dockers star Caleb Serong happy to be ‘written off’ ahead of crucial Western Bulldogs clash

Star midfielder Caleb Serong says Fremantle are happy to be “written off” ahead of the club’s do-or-die clash with Western Bulldogs on Sunday.

The Dockers face an ‘elimination final’ at Marvel Stadium, with a loss likely to see them miss out on finals in heartbreaking fashion for a second straight year.

Despite winning 11 of their past 13 games, the poor performance against Brisbane at Optus Stadium on Friday night has the Dockers as firm outsiders ahead of the final round of the home and away season.

But Serong said the playing group are not concerned with the outside noise.

“It’s very much that recency bias. We’ve been written off and that’s fine, we’re not too worried about that,” Serong told Triple M.

“These are the kind of games you want to play, the build-up throughout the week, and it’s a much better place to be than the bottom nine.

“We’ve got a lot of belief in our footy and there’s a fair bit of evidence across the last 13 weeks that when we play our way, we’re a pretty good side.

“On the weekend, we didn’t give ourselves the best chance to win against Brisbane with the way we played, so we’re going to get back to controlling what we can.”

The Bulldogs have an incredible record at Marvel this year, with seven wins by 70 points or more this season, including their last three by an average of 91 points.

They also boast an imposing forward line led by Sam Darcy, who has 16 goals from his last four games, while Aaron Naughton has found form at the right time with 32 majors across his last seven.

It’s seen the Dockers sit as $3.30 outsiders, but Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir went hard in his press conference on Wednesday, shifting the heat onto their opponents, who sit one spot below them on the ladder.

“We’ve been in these situations before. The pressure is on them, isn’t it? Last time I checked, they’ve won one less game than us,” he said.

“The narrative around some of this stuff gets me a little bit, because last time I checked we are on the same amount of wins as Collingwood, who are fourth.”

Serong enjoyed seeing Longmuir fired up and set it’s an energy that has been felt around the group throughout the week.

“I love hearing JL talking with that passion and he spoke with the team this week in a very similar way about making sure the group didn’t lose belief,” he said.

“The weekend doesn’t reflect us as a team. If we can get back to our footy, we have full belief we can get the job done because our best footy competes with anyone.”