Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Sydney’s new stand-in skipper has declared Fremantle are the best team in the competition as the top two seeds prepare to battle it out for a place in the AFL grand final.
Veteran and former co-captain Dane Rampe was on Monday unveiled as the player who will lead the club’s finals campaign following a season-ending knee injury to heart-and-soul captain Callum Mills.
Mills hurt his knee in the qualifying final win over Brisbane a fortnight ago that earned second-placed Sydney a home preliminary final, with the Swans to host the Dockers in a sold-out blockbuster at the SCG on Friday night.
Rampe said Fremantle had been “the best team all year by far, in my opinion”.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us,” he said. “But we’re excited by the challenge. We’re at home on the SCG, we’ve earned that right and that’s something that we’re going to look to exploit.
“At the end of the day, they’ve been No.1 and have been there for a reason. They had a small hiccup two weeks ago against Hawthorn but I think it’s pretty clear to the footy world that they’re No.1 and have well and truly been that all year.”
Rampe will fulfill the role that would have fallen to vice-captain Isaac Heeney, who was one of five players banned for the rest of the 2026 season last month for breaching behavioral standards.
Despite being without Heeney, West Australian star Chad Warner, playmaker Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice, Fremantle vice-captain Caleb Serong said the Dockers were not underestimating the Swans.
“They’re a formidable team, with or without those players,” Serong said.
“We’ll be expecting their absolute best. I feel like they’re a club and a team that thrive at this time of year. We’re excited for that opportunity and that challenge but we won’t be expecting anything but their best.
“If you look at that qualifying final game and how well they played, you can’t help but think they’re as good a side, if not a better side, the way they’re playing at the moment.”
The Dockers are $1.52 favourites, according to TABTouch, to punch their ticket to only the second AFL decider in the club’s history.
But Serong said the minor premiers will approach the game with an underdog mentality.
“We’re going over there with a really hungry mindset. It’s hunting them and getting after them and that’s the only mindset we really need to take into it,” he said.
“It’s a home prelim final for them, so we’re the away team. We’ve got to travel over there in front of their fans so I’d be surprised if they don’t see themselves as favorites. But for us, we don’t really read into that. We’re just going about playing our footy and going over and hunting them.”
