Round 15 of the 2025 AFL season is in the books. So, it's time to react ... or overreact.
Did Marcus Windhager go too far with his tagging of Nick Daicos? Should Fremantle be in the premiership discussion?
Let's get to this week's overreactions, where we judge a few major takeaways as legitimate or irrational.
Marcus Windhager went too far with his tagging of Nick Daicos
On Saturday night at Marvel Stadium, St Kilda's Marcus Windhager made life as difficult as possible for Collingwood star Nick Daicos. He didn't leave his side all game, crashed and bashed into him at every opportunity, and at times crossed the line of what's acceptable on the footy field.
Verdict: Overreaction
The art of tagging has come under the microscope in recent weeks, but remember, the job of any tagger is to restrict their opponent's output as much as possible. They pretty much have one job: don't let them get the ball.
Daicos may have wound up as arguably the best player on the ground against the Saints, but that says more about him as a player, his work rate, and brilliance than it does Windhager's tagging skills. Windhager tried every trick in the book to unsettle him -- at one stage whacking him across the face -- and that's all Ross Lyon and the St Kilda coaching staff could have asked for.
The question that should be raised is whether the field umpires need to be more vigilant and pay more free kicks to the players copping the extreme attention. We're all for the hard-nosed defensive side of the game, but we don't want to normalize the whacking and smacking of an opponent.
Fremantle should be in the premiership discussion
After a slow(ish) start to the season, the Dockers have hit top form, winning five straight to jump inside the top eight. Justin Longmuir's side is now just one win outside the top four and the prized finals double chance. So, are they a team to be taken seriously and one that can actually lift the premiership cup?
Verdict: Not an overreaction
Don't get us wrong, we're not predicting a Fremantle flag, but we need to give them some serious respect. Sure, Collingwood appears to be head and shoulders above the competition at the moment, but there's a bunch of sides in the next bracket ... why not the Dockers, too?
Since playing a shocker against the Saints in Round 8, Fremantle has been one of the best offensive teams and the best defensive team. In that time, the Dockers rank top three for all four key defensive metrics -- points against, opposition scores from inside 50s, points against from stoppage, and points against from turnover -- and have a record of 5-1, the only loss to the aforementioned Magpies.
Aside from their defensive prowess, the Dockers have a dominant ruck in Luke Jackson, one of the best midfield duos in Caleb Serong and Andrew Brayshaw, one of the competition's most dynamic players in Shai Bolton, and a two-time Brownlow Medal winner in Nat Fyfe. Don't sleep on them.