Former Essendon champion Tim Watson has questioned whether there are any blue skies ahead for Fremantle after yet another hiding yesterday left the port club’s finals hopes in tatters.

The Dockers axed a host of senior servants to field their youngest team in eight years and were subsequently handed a 61-point hiding by Collingwood at the MCG.

Coach Ross Lyon picked eight players with fewer than 15 games under their belts, including debutants Scott Jones and Stefan Giro.

Bailey Banfield, Andrew Brayshaw, Adam Cerra and Taylin Duman were also in the side after making debuts earlier in 2018.

Brennan Cox and Michael Apeness rounded out the group.

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Lyon pointed to the youth policy in his post-match press conference when declaring the “sobering” result should be put into the context of the club’s attempts to rebuild its list.

But Watson questioned why Fremantle had fallen away so badly after generating 17 wins on the way to winning the 2015 minor premiership.

The Dockers crashed out in the preliminary finals that year and have since won just 16 matches in the following two-and-a-half seasons at a success rate of 29 per cent.

“Right now, they’ve got this group of inexperienced players, did they have to fall so far after the success they had?” Watson said on SEN.

“Where was their planning, where was their connection? You look at the powerhouses – Hawthorn, Geelong – they haven’t tumbled to the same degree that Fremantle has.

“You’d have to say that there was something wrong with their planning internally over that period of time.”

Watson predicted further pain for Fremantle, with veterans Aaron Sandilands and David Mundy coming towards the ends of their careers.

“They’re a long way off it. if you look at say their top end, their better players, they’re going to lose them over the next couple of years as well,” Watson said.

“I don’t think that there’s necessarily blue skies ahead for Fremantle now either.”

Former Western Bulldogs and Richmond coach Terry Wallace, who was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame last week, posed a similar question to Watson’s.

“Can someone please explain to me why Freo have gone from No.1 on the AFL ladder one year to non-competitive for the next three years?” Wallace tweeted.

“Sorry but they are a really disappointing club in recent times.

“Please understand as a former coach I am not laying the blame on any one person for Freo’s demise, but still the question needs to be asked how they fell so badly.

“There are probably at least 20 people at the club that should be asking the same.”

Sandilands missed the Collingwood clash due to concussion, while fellow long-time servants Michael Johnson, Hayden Ballantyne and Danyle Pearce were dropped.

Just six players in the Fremantle side had played more than 60 games.

Lyon said he would stay the course with his youth policy and former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon said that was the right way to go.

“You’d rather go down like they did and kick seven goals in the last quarter with seven players under 10 games than go down with the players that they’d continued to play over the journey,” Garry Lyon said.