HAVE heard the saying a thousand times in the AFL, and I usually subscribe to it: the club is greater than the individual.
Sometimes, though, there is reason to flip it, and to place the player first. Fremantle should do just that in the short time remaining of Nat Fyfe’s most extraordinary of AFL careers.
The Fyfe of late 2025 is clearly not the Fyfe of 2013-19, a period into which he crammed two Brownlow Medals, three All-Australians (including captaincy), three best-and-fairest wins and two AFL Players Association MVPs.
And the current Fyfe may be operating at less than 60 per cent of his optimum in that gloried period. His body cannot be guaranteed to even get through a full game. But as payback for his excellence, his loyalty, his Dockers devotion and his tireless preparedness to return from injuries since being drafted in 2009, he is deserving of the right to be selected for the remainder of the Dockers’ 2025 campaign.
Nat Fyfe in action during Fremantle’s clash with Essendon in round 15, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
Fyfe announced his retirement on Monday, effective upon completion of the 2025 season. Two days earlier, in yet another comeback from injury, he made a solid contribution as the Dockers’ sub in a gritty win against Port Adelaide.
As unedifying as it once was to someone of Fyfe’s credentials and standing, the sub role now looms as his ticket to the finish line. He would prefer not to be subjected to the role, but he also knows that in a team that will enter round 23 from fourth place on the ladder, it is his playing lifeline. The five matches he has played this year have seen him in that guise – subbed on three times, subbed off once, and extraordinarily not used as a sub in round 16 against St Kilda.
In an AFL first, and in keeping with the many setbacks this AFL great has had to endure, Fyfe somehow injured a calf without even playing, damaging it in a warm-up drill at half-time.
Nat Fyfe during the round 16 match between Fremantle and St Kilda at Optus Stadium, June 29, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
Fyfe was left shattered, fearful his latest comeback would be the official end. It led to another four-week stint on the sidelines, and then to an unglamorous return through the WAFL in monsoon-like downpour conditions. Getting his body through 60 minutes of that game had him ready to fill the vacancy created by another injury-prone Docker, Hayden Young, who may be the Dockers’ best player, in last weekend’s Adelaide Oval match against the Power.
While there would be risk associated with locking Fyfe into permanent sub involvement, the potential upside would be intimidating to opponents the deeper the Dockers stayed in the premiership race. A finals berth is not yet confirmed for Fremantle despite 11 wins from the past 12 matches, but it has proven its best stands up well against the best teams. And imagine the fear of an opposition coach upon potentially entering a preliminary final against Fremantle, with Fyfe as the sub.
Only one person would challenge Fyfe as the greatest Docker in the club’s 31 seasons of AFL life: the equally great, albeit Brownlow-less, Matthew Pavlich.
Matthew Pavlich and Nat Fyfe during Fremantle’s clash with Geelong in round two, 2015. Picture: AFL Photos
Watching once-incomparable and formerly near-unbeatable athletes in the latter stages of careers at the elite level always makes for fascinating viewing.
Their dreams and beliefs are still usually intact, but their bodies are often either breaking down or simply unable to operate at optimum speed and effect.
The true greats persevere. They push through the pain and setbacks, find different ways to impact.
Fyfe has done that this year. Shane Crawford did it in 2008, all the way through to producing, on one leg and with an empty tank, a massive final quarter in the most unexpected of Grand Final wins.
