Fremantle star Gabby Newton will put childhood grudges aside to barrack for Carlton against West Coast on Friday night, with a loss for their cross-town rivals to boost their odds of an unlikely finals berth.
The Dockers need the Blues to knock over the Eagles, the lowly Essendon to beat Sydney or the Western Bulldogs to cause an upset over St Kilda to keep their own hopes alive heading into Sunday’s must-win clash with Adelaide.
And while Newton said growing up a Collingwood supporter makes the idea of being a Blues fan, even for a few hours, unthinkable, the club’s desperate finals equation called for desperate measures.
“I grew up, long ago, a Collingwood fan, so I think it would be really hard for me to cheer for Carlton, but maybe this weekend I might have to,” she said.
“But there are so many results that need to play out, and no matter what, we’re just excited to get another opportunity on the weekend.
“If it’s the last one or if it’s the one that launches us into finals, where we want to be, I think we’ve learnt over the whole season we need to be able to anchor in and be able to control what we can control.”
Fremantle coach Lisa Webb said her focus was narrowed to beating Crows, who the Dockers have only beaten once from nine attempts, rather than other results.
And while it was Adelaide who eliminated her side from finals last year, Webb believes they are a different side than 2024.
“They’re a really, really good team. Last year we played them twice and they beat us… But I think we’ve really shifted our mindset over the last year, and we’re ready to go,” she said.
“I watched a few of our games against Adelaide last season, we’re a different team since then, and we keep improving and growing, which makes us a real chance this weekend.”
The Crows went down by seven points in a nail-biting Showdown against arch-rivals Port Adelaide last week, and Newton said the Dockers are keen to bring the contested heat that worked for the Power.
“I was actually watching the showdown back and that was a really good game of AFLW,” she said.
“To watch them go at it against Port, who are also a really great contested team, I think that will be similar to what we bring.
“There are so many match-ups across the ground that you could look at, but we’re just going to bring our A-game because we know we have to.”
