RYAN DANIELS: Why Fremantle Dockers must make immediate push to lure Chad Warner this off-season

We’ve always been told patience is a virtue.

Wait our turn, don’t force your way — it’s polite to be asked first.

That’s fine for most things, but not in footy. Not these days.

There’s a time to let things grow, to sit and wait.

This is not that time for Fremantle.

September has just started, and there is no clear favourite to hoist that cup.

Everyone you talk to has a different flag tip — Sydney, GWS, Brisbane, Geelong — you wonder if we’re entering an era of premiership chaos, a competition so evenly spread that the aggressor, the momentum chaser is the one who wins it year after year.

We saw it with Collingwood last year, too. Pull the magic together, master a unique style and push all your chips in. Don’t wait for a tomorrow which may never come.

The Fremantle Dockers should be part of the circus this year. They lost five games by under two goals, that’s been covered in depth by now – but just how close they were to having a real say in September won’t be lost on the hierarchy.

They’re clearly building something very good at Cockburn. Piece by piece, they’ve added many layers to this young core.

They have the grunt of Caleb Serong, the class of Hayden Young, the work rate of Andy Brayshaw and the ‘Power of Grayskull’ hands of Josh Treacy.

Jye is dead-eye, Luke Jackson a unicorn — and his horn isn’t yet at its pointiest.

But they don’t have it all.

They’re missing the match-winners. The game breakers.

Coincidentally, there’s a pair of WA-born studs who might just be gettable.

The Dockers have been scrupulous with their list build to date — they haven’t overspent to keep role players, they’ve locked in key pieces long term, found bargains late in drafts and nailed the high picks. They’ve stockpiled draft capital, rolled over salary cap, set themselves up for a chance at an all-in move.

Call it luck, or call it clever planning, they now have the chance to land that killer blow.

If there’s a one per cent chance, the Dockers need to throw everything they have at it. They must be ruthless.

Chad Warner is a freak — a star of the game about to chase his first flag.

A blonde haired, hot-stepping headless-chook type – the kind of player who can turn up on Grand Final day and walk away with two medals.

When this weekend started, the bookies thought so too — he’s the favourite for this year’s Norm Smith medal, of all 352 players listed on an AFL finalist.

He also happens to be a WA kid, one who played his under 18’s footy with Jackson and fellow Docker Jeremy Sharp.

You’ve heard the rumours — Fremantle want Warner, conversations have been had, there’s a chance he might come. But next year.

Warner is out of contract in 12 months, and he’s not the type of player clubs like letting go — you can bet the Swans would dig their heels in to keep him.

But in the new era of football movement, players leave early sometimes. Tom Barrass is doing it right now. Jason Horne-Francis did it. It happens.

The contract might mean you have to pay more to steal a player away, but it doesn’t make it impossible.

And sometimes you need to force the issue.

Stuff waiting a year. Throw the kitchen sink, the laundry sink, and the bathtub at it. Fremantle have picks. They have more picks than an Instagram influencer. Use them all. Throw something so good at the Swans, they must at least take the phone call.

If Sydney wins the flag this year, would their bellies be full enough to let Warner go? If they wait a year and he leaves anyway, are they risking a lesser return in a trade?

The chance might be slim, but so is winning Powerball, and yet we continue to try.

Warner isn’t the only target.

Fremantle look a near certainty to land Shai Bolton. A match-winning, twitchy, dynamic forward, that rare player who can kick four, have 30 touches and take mark of the year - all in the same game - and you aren’t shocked.

Put that guy on the MCG in late September and he might single-handedly win you a flag.

In 2024, Fremantle had nearly all the bits, but lacked a lethal edge, a player to break open a big moment, to terrify the opposition and create space. Bolton and Warner do that stuff for fun.

Could the Dockers add both?

Nail that, and you’re not just opening a window; you’re strapping dynamite to it and removing an entire wall.

If there’s a one per cent chance, the Dockers need to throw everything they have at it. They must be ruthless.

Please, thank you, virtue. No. Good manners and patience can wait.