by When Nat Fyfe arrived in Fremantle in Fremantle at the end of 2009, not even the sharpest experts would have predicted that he would become one of the largest footballers in Western Australia.
The 33-year-old announced on Monday that after 16 seasons at the end of the Dockers campaign in 2025, he retired. He is chosen his boots as one of the most decorated players of the modern times with two Brownlow medals, three all-Australian blazers, and selected twice as the most valuable player in the AFL Players’ Association.
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But Fyfe was almost famous by the dockers because the club wanted a real midfielder at that time, not a thin, ranking child who barely tipped the scale with 74 kg.
Town of Lake Glear, about 320 kilometers south -east of Perth, grew up in the small Western Australian wheat, the Docker also had concerns about some of his disciplinary problems when they entered the prestigious Aquinas College. Phil Smart, who was the recruitment manager at The Dockers at the time, told Fairfax Media that Fremantle was not very interested in taking Fyfe.
“We had a problem in relation to some of the other members of the List management group, the club was interested in taking a real midfielder at the time, and there were some rather strong debates about the admission of NAT in this election,” he said. “Without knowing all the advantages and disadvantages, one of my friends with whom I grew up was a pension master in Aquin, and I think there were problems from time to time.”
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After some former Dockers Smart coaches had convinced to visit the young Whippet, Fremantle Fyfe chose with selection No. 20 in the AFL design from 2009.
“He was very competitive, he had clean hands, in other words, he didn’t fumble, he was very clean from the ground and in the air and he made very good decisions and had a good view and a good awareness,” he said.
Fyfe debut in the first round the following season, and it didn’t take long for him to stamp himself as one of the elite midfielder in the game. He was soon intended to become one of the most marketable players in the AFL long before Eagles’ Young Gun Harley Reid decorated the front and rear sides of the only daily newspaper of the state.
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Fyfe simply couldn’t stop during his flowering. He was a bullfer animal around the interruptions and paved the way for other powerful midfielder like Patrick Cripps and Marcus Bontempelli.
Fyfe was so dominant in the 2015 season that betting agencies won the Brownlow medal after only nine games. Four years later, he would become another Charlie and the 15th player in AFL history to win several Brownlow medals.
The club’s three-time best-and-fair winner said on Monday that it just felt like the right time to retire. The last remaining member of Fremantle’s Grand Finale team from Fremantle 2013, which was still playing, was hindered by soft tissue injuries this year and only managed five games to bring his career a total of 245 games.
“I am only incredibly grateful for what my AFL experience and playing with strangers gave me,” he said. “It was an enormous opportunity and brought me to places that I could never have dreamed of.
“I go with a feeling of understanding that I don’t need anything else that is a really peaceful place, and yet itself – and the team – is still in a position in which this hard -to -tangible dream for Premiership is good and really alive.”
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Where Fyfe is among Pantheon of WA’s football sizes, there will be discussion for the coming years. However, there is no doubt that he belongs to the same Western Australian kings as Stephen Michael, Lance Franklin and Polly Farmer.
Regardless of Fyfe’s overall ranking, nobody would deny that he is one of the modern sizes of sport. He is so high that Prime Minister Roger Cook described a Western Australian sports legend on social media.
“As one of the greatest players of Fremantle Dockers ever, Fyfe was praised by his teammates, other players and fans and brought the state good luck,” he said. “He leaves an incredible legacy on and off the foot field.”
If there was mistakes in Fyfe’s game, it was his set goal. Especially in the Grand Final 2013 when he scored two GETABLE goals in the first quarter.
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Fyfe may no longer be the physical animal that he was once, but with a foreigner, who was sitting on the ladder fourth, he could play an important role in the search for the Dockers for their first AFL primeership. It is the only trophy that is missing in its glittering, outstanding career.
