Fremantle Dockers Jumper Vault

2019 ISC Indigenous match worn: #44 Taylin Duman.
Designed by Troy Cook and Victor Bellotti, this is one of those jumpers attached to a moment. 2019 was not the year many Fremantle fans hoped for, but during the two consecutive weeks that comprised Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round, the team - and Michael Walters specifically - were as clutch as they came. The first of the two games was played at home against the rising Brisbane Lions, a side that would go on to finish second. Brisbane led for much of the match, but a strong final term from Fremantle saw the scores level. With seconds to play, Ed Langdon found himself with the ball 60m from goal and spotted Sonny Walters in the pocket. He hit the pass, the siren sounded, and Sonny hit the post. The score was enough to win the game. One of the first on the scene to celebrate was Taylin Duman, a running defender who played 45 games across four seasons at Fremantle. Duman had 16 touches and kicked two behinds that night, playing an unfamiliar role forward. Duman was a solid contributor over his time with the club, and a strong performer on a night to remember at Optus Stadium back in 2019.

2016 ISC home match worn: #10 Michael Walters.
It’s hard to know where to start with Sonny. I’ve got a couple of his in the locker, so I can break the narrative up a bit. When we interviewed Michael Walters for our book project, he spoke at length about the importance of being a role model to kids watching at home. Nearly every time he pulled on a jumper across his 239 games for Fremantle, there was a bigger picture at play - even in the early years when some Ross Lyon tough love was required to get the best out of him. He was skilful, talented, and smarter on a footy field than most. While 2016 was a disappointing year for Fremantle, which fell from first in 2015 to 16th, Walters stood tall with his 36 goals leading the club tally at season’s end. Some of the jumpers worn in 2016 featured a GPS flap on the back collar, meaning the GPS pouch was not stitched into the back of the garment. It was a weird and momentary inclusion. The 2017 jumper is near identical, but the flaps were more or less gone by then.

2015 ISC clash match worn: #46 Clancee Pearce.
The Ross Lyon-led Fremantle side finished atop the ladder in 2015, driven by a host of stars and supported by a number of important role players. Pearce fell firmly into the latter category, a reliable big-bodied utility with a fun name and a Spider-Man tattoo sleeve to boot. A favourite of the polarising Channel 7 commentator Brian Taylor, Pearce played exactly 100 games for Fremantle, including 18 in 2015. Loved a long range goal and played some good football in a seriously good football team. Pearce was a product of a freakishly stacked Swan Districts colts team which won the WAFL u18s comp in 2007 - alongside fellow AFL alumni Alex Rance, Nic Naitanui, Michael Walters, Chris Yarran, Lewis and Neville Jetta, Todd Banfield, Tony Notte, David Ellard and Luke Pratt. He may not have been the biggest name on the list, but he was an important part of a successful on-field era for the football club. I also love when players stick with high numbers. It’s great to see.

2007 Reebok Starlight Purple Haze match worn: #11 Des Headland.

Headland wore this jumper in Round 1, 2007, when he had 24 touches in a loss to Port at Subiaco. It was already the sixth Starlight game – a tradition that continues to this day. Until the 2011 redesign, the game was commemorated in an all-purple strip with a white anchor on the chest, with sponsors and templates changing yearly.

Des arrived with great fanfare at Freo in 2003 as a former number-one draft pick who had played 52 games and won a flag with Brisbane. He immediately inherited Dale Kickett’s number 11 and was a member of Freo’s first finals team in 2003. Headland would go on to play a further 114 games at the Dockers before retiring in 2010. In 2007 he booted 25 goals from 17 games, including a five-goal performance against Richmond.

Des remains part of the Freo family, designing the 2021 Indigenous jumper which paid tribute to a famous photo by Les Everett of seven Indigenous players lined up before a game in 2003 - a then-record for Indigenous players in a single team which Des was proudly part of. Freo broke its own record years later.

2002 Russell Athletic red training worn: #43 Roger Hayden.

This jumper became one of my favourites in the collection after I had the opportunity to put it in front of Roger when we interviewed him for The Fibre of Freo book a few years ago.

His response stuck with me.

Having looked up to Fremantle’s rich Indigenous culture when he was growing up in the Great Southern, Hayden arrived at the club in 2002 from the league team at South Fremantle. He previously played colts footy with their arch rival East Freo.

In contrast with some of the higher picks around him, as a rookie draft selection there was no guarantee he would make it. As he told it to us, the early training jumpers meant a lot to him because of the uncertainty he felt around his place in the team – you may never play a game, you may never get another jumper.

That was in direct contrast with the experience of Matthew Pavlich, who told us game jumpers were the ones that that mattered to him in his rookie days.

Two great players, two very different pathways.

Hayden was 21 years old when he debuted- not old by any stretch, but not Rising Star eligible either.

What a player he turned out to be. Debuting the week after Dale Kickett’s retirement, a career-defining game on Phil Matera in the 2002 Western Derby offered him a lifeline into 2003, and, when fit, he paid it back in spades as a smooth-moving defender over 128 games to the end of 2011.

Despite significant injury layoffs, Hayden was one of a handful of players to play every game in Freo’s first three finals campaigns, in 2003, 2006 and 2010.

The others were Pavlich, Sandilands and McPharlin.

Retirement wasn’t the end of his affiliation with the Dockers. Hayden has worked in development and Indigenous liaison roles since the day he retired and was made a life member in 2020 for a contribution which now spans more than two decades.

A real Freo Docker ⚓️

1995 Sekem Fremantle away player issue: #39 Brad Cassidy ⚓️

Where better to start documenting Fremantle’s jumper history than here.

On 1 April 1995, Fremantle took the field for the first time in AFL competition, facing Richmond at the MCG. A team of journeymen and misfits, playing water polo tactics in the era of Pagan’s Paddock.

They did so wearing this jumper - part of the first official set of Dockers jumpers ever made.

Recruited from Ballarat, Brad Cassidy never played a senior game for Freo in his lone season in WA, managing only a handful of appearances for South Fremantle in the WAFL. He later played 14 games for Fitzroy in its final season (1996), before adding two more with Collingwood in 1997.

1995 Fremantle jumpers are identifiable by the Hard Yakka patch - white lettering on a blue background in the inaugural season, replaced by purple thereafter.