Fremantle Dockers chief executive Simon Garlick says club is not satisfied with breakthrough finals showing

Fremantle chief executive Simon Garlick says the Dockers are not satisfied despite their finals breakthrough and warned about the risk of going backwards in 2023. Speaking at Saturday night’s sold out Doig Medal function at Crown Perth, Garlick said there was “no contentment” following their semifinal exit against Collingwood. “Despite elements of growth and development, we’re dissatisfied,” he said. “There’s no contentment because while we’ve made progress, we haven’t achieved anything yet. There’s a mountain of work to do if we are to reach the aspirations that we’ve set ourselves. “There’s enough experience and awareness in our organisation to understand that without the appropriate levels of desire, hunger and determination, this competition finds you out. “There’s countless examples of teams who play finals after a longstanding absence and stagnate or regress the next year. This is something for us to be aware of as opposed to focus on.” Skipper Nat Fyfe did not address the captaincy issue on stage following his campaign being ruined by injury and said the team’s initial focus for next year had to be on having a strong summer. “It was an interesting year individually, but from a team point of view it was one of the most enjoyable seasons that I’ve ever been a part of,” Fyfe said. “To get the opportunity to play in Melbourne in front of 90,000 is just invaluable experience for our group. “It’s hard at this time of the year to talk about where the improvement can come from, because there is so much that needs to happen before then. “Our availability this year was one of the key reasons why were able to push so deep into the year. Our players have a responsibility to make sure that our off-season – if we just get that right going into next season the improvement comes in big games.” Coach Justin Longmuir was upbeat following the return to the finals for the first time since 2015. “We should be really proud of what we achieved this year and I don’t think anyone can deny the fact that we took a step forward in our footy,” Longmuir said. “And I think it’s really important to reflect on that and it’s really important to be really proud of what we achieved. “We need to reflect on that last game and we need to understand that that’s the level that we want to aspire to get to. We want to be able to perform at our best on that stage and in hostile territory.” After targeting a return to September at last year’s event, president Dale Alcock did not offer a grand aim for next season. “Last year, I signed off by saying that our aspirations for 2022 would be to play finals,” Alcock said. “We remain grounded in the reality of where we stand and the hard work that lies ahead. We are drive to be better. “After such an exciting AFL season, any result that wasn’t a grand final win was going to be hard for us to take. “Our comeback victory against the Western Bulldogs was a landmark moment for our club and for this group. But the loss to Collingwood showed us that work still needs to be done for us to truly get to the next level and we’re up for that.” Alcock also paid tribute to the purple army. “It’s not lost on us how significant it is to finish fourth in the league in home game attendance, when we cannot rely on opposition fan support to drive our numbers up like Victorian clubs,” he said. “And away from home, our wins against Geelong and Melbourne, in particular, sounded like home games. It’s your passion that drives us to be better every day.”