Fremantle have been restored as premiership favourites after their semi-final victory over Geelong, with supporters now facing sharply higher air fares to follow the Dockers to Sydney for their preliminary final.
The Dockers overturned a damaging defeat by Hawthorn to beat Geelong 18.12 (120) to 16.10 (106) at Optus Stadium on Friday night. They will now meet Sydney at the SCG.
TAB Touch cut Fremantle’s premiership odds to $3.20, ahead of Hawthorn at $3.40. The Dockers had been priced at $5.50 before their win over Geelong.
Fremantle are also $1.62 favourites for the preliminary final, while Sydney are paying $2.30.
The Swans will be without six players from their best 23. Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordan and Riley Bice were suspended by the club for the rest of the season following an off-field scandal in round 24, while captain Callum Mills suffered a knee injury in the qualifying final.
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir rejected the idea that Sydney would necessarily be weakened by the absences, pointing to their performance against Brisbane.
“I watched what they did against Brisbane. Clearly, they didn’t seem like they missed any of those players. They played a fantastic, selfless brand of footy,” he said.
“We’ll go over there as underdogs, and they’ll be really confident after their win against Brisbane. They’ll be heavy favourites on their home deck, but we’ll go over and give it our best.”
Fremantle fans face soaring Sydney flight prices
The surge in confidence around Fremantle has been accompanied by a steep rise in the cost of travelling from Perth to Sydney. An average direct Virgin Australia flight on Thursday was priced at $1,264, compared with $473 on Wednesday.
Qantas flights averaged $1,216 on Thursday, up from $693 the previous day, as fans looked for ways to attend the match.
Geelong coach Chris Scott said before the result that he believed the winner of the semi-final would have a strong chance of winning the premiership. Fremantle’s victory has strengthened that view.
“I had a feeling going into the game that the winner of this game would have a really good chance. And I’m probably more confident of that now,” Scott said.
Fremantle finished the home-and-away season on top of the ladder and are appearing in their first preliminary final since 2015 as they pursue a maiden premiership.
Longmuir, however, insisted his players could not afford to look beyond Sydney.
“The job’s not done,” he said. “We spoke about it last week. We were in similar position to what we were on Thursday before the Hawthorn game. We were one win away from a prelim because we gave ourselves the second chance.”
He added: “It feels great. We played a really good brand of footy and should get a lot of confidence out of that. But the job’s not done. So we have to go 1-0 again.”
