“It doesn’t matter what game plan you have got, if you can’t execute your skills you are going to turn it over and you are going to be chasing butt.”

With those words commentator, eight time All-Australian and 2003 Brownlow medallist Mark Ricciuto made the diagnosis Fremantle have refused to issue to themselves: poor skill execution.

It killed the Dockers all year last year and the club hit rock bottom yesterday — the bottom of the ladder on the back of an 89-point flogging from Port Adelaide which laid Fremantle’s inadequacies bare and rendered playing finals this season as a pipe dream.

If this really is a four-year rebuild, let the rebuilding begin now. And it must start by commencing to address the club’s poor skill level.

This should be reflected in the way the club trains. It should be reflected in the way Fremantle select teams.

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Camera Icon The Dockers walk off the field following Sunday’s shellacking at the hands of Port. Credit: Getty Images

No one at Fremantle should escape scrutiny now. Not coach Ross Lyon, who has publicly elevated effort above skill in his coaching values. Not the board at Fremantle, who endorsed Lyon’s coaching methods and values by extending his contract until 2020. Not the players who, regardless of what coaching focuses are, are full-time athletes who have let their own skill levels slide to a point where they are uncompetitive in the AFL.

In order to cure the disease, you must first admit what it is: this is a crisis in confidence borne of a skill level that is now arguably the worst in the AFL.

Against Geelong in round one, seven of the Cats’ 11 goals in the first half were the result of Fremantle turnovers. Against Port yesterday, 10 of the Power’s first 12 goals were from Dockers clangers.

In order to cure the disease, you must first admit what it is: this is a crisis in confidence borne of a skill level that is now arguably the worst in the AFL.

At the other end, Fremantle had managed a single point off Port’s turnovers. The first two that started the rout yesterday were howlers. Joel Hamling picked out Brad Ebert coming out of defence, a mistake that was compounded by a Garrick Ibbotson fumble. Then Lee Spurr aimed at Hamling, telegraphed the kick and watched as Chad Wingard picked it off and banged through Port’s second goal.

The pattern of the game was established. Port’s confidence levels swelled and the Dockers’ confidence was reduced to rubble. Fremantle skill errors have become an epidemic and when we are talking about poor skills, it goes way beyond poor kicking.

Two of their rare forward 50m entries in the first quarter were halted by careless high tackles. Others dropped marks. Others missed rudimentary handball targets. As the knowledge hit home that they were incapable of stringing the chains of possession that other teams routinely pull off, the Dockers’ will to run to attack dried up and their want to win contested ball declined.

The game has shifted. After 10 years of significant advances in the defensive side of the game, Hawthorn have triggered significant advances in the offensive side of the game.

The Hawks were so good at attack and ball use and movement it demanded a response from other teams.

Most have. Fremantle’s refusal to shift with the trend has landed them in this crisis.