Ben Smith: Walyalup (Fremantle) playing with house money as they look to pull off AFLW finals heist

The house always wins, or so says Danny Ocean. “Play long enough,” George Clooney’s lovable rogue argues, “you never change the stakes, the house takes you. “Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, and then you take the house.” Now, are Walyalup shaping up for an Ocean’s Eleven-style raid on the AFLW finals? They would certainly like to think they are. But in reality, to take this movie metaphor somewhat sideways and swap it out (Ocean’s Twelve style), the fact the Dockers are even at the eight-seat poker table that is the finals is an achievement in itself. No one really hyped up Walyalup before the season. Some picked them for finals, but I doubt many people truly expected them to be in a position to challenge for a top-four spot heading into the final round of the home-and-away season. In simple terms, they were hardly a consensus pick for the finals and even now, it feels like there has not been much noise around them outside of the Dockers’ home state. Lisa Webb and co always saw finals as the end goal, but the route they have taken is admirable. Before a ball was even bounced, they knew they would be sans a Turbo boost all season-long with Kiara Bowers’ pregnancy announcement. Then they lost Ange Stannett, who was excellent all last season in a variety of roles, having shifted from defence to attack and even spent some time on-ball. For all the praise the Dockers will give Stannett for performing her off-field duties as captain this season, how much would they love her fit and firing and contributing on-field this season? Aine Tighe can dominate the forward arc and at her best is one of the leading forwards in the competition, yet she was restricted to just four games before suffering a torn ACL. Take away three players the quality of Bowers, Stannett and Tighe, and most teams in the league would quake and if not collapse, certainly lack a certain robustness around them. Yet Walyalup have just carried on attending to business, and have not lost away from home all season. It is why this finals campaign feels like something of a free hit — there is no external pressure, only the expectations the team put on themselves. And while players, coaches and the club will roll out the ‘we don’t listen to outside noise’ line, it is easier to deliver that cliche when things are going well. Depth players have stepped up in a Bill Belichick-style ‘do your job’ manner and kept the Dockers’ well-oiled machine rolling, and it has helped them exceed external expectations this season. There are ways in which the Dockers could have crumpled without their three big stars, but they have simply rode out the regular season in a professional manner. If you offered their fans a top six-berth at the start of the season in the knowledge three of their best players would miss most or all of the season, they probably would have taken it in a heartbeat. Next season, there will be added pressure as expectations will rise off the return of the stars, but this year feels like something of a free hit, a chance to prove their home and away form stacks up in November, but less disappointment from fans if they do not go deep into the month. For now, the Purple Army will be content with riding the finals train and seeing where it takes them. With the odds stacked against Walyalup, this was a year in which the house was meant to win, but instead they played their hand perfectly, and are now leaving the casino with wads of cash. West Coast/Fremantle will be known as Waalitj Marawar/Walyalup for AFLW Indigenous round.