If Fremantle ends up creating some history in 2026, you can't help but think a moment midway through the last quarter of Thursday night's thrilling come-from-behind win over Hawthorn will be seen as pivotal.
Nearly 12 minutes had ticked over and the Dockers, despite having dominated the early going in the term, still trailed by a couple of goals.
Desperate to create something, skipper Alex Pearce charged forward and on to a ball booted in his vicinity. A goal beckoned. And it was duly kicked. Not by Fremantle, though.
Instead, Pearce's errant handball was intercepted, the resultant counterattack ending in Jack Gunston's sixth goal and the Hawks now with a 19-point lead, just 11 minutes remaining, and the Dockers having managed just one goal since half-time.
At virtually any other time in this perpetually under-delivering club's history, even last season, that would have been that. But this version of Fremantle really - yes really - does look to be made of far sterner stuff.
Instead of Docker heads dropping, they simply shrugged it off, gathered themselves and went again. And again. And again. The result wasn't just a tide, but something of a tsunami. The Hawks had just 12 percent of possession from then on as Fremantle slammed on the last five goals of the game for an eventual 15-point win.
Perhaps most significantly, some of the keys to that final push over the line were those who hadn't enjoyed the greatest of evenings, yet were still able to find something when it mattered most.
Josh Treacy, for example, whose kicking radar had malfunctioned badly all evening with 1.4, until his desperate checkside snap found the target where his set shots couldn't to give Freo a sniff again. Michael Frederick had been serviceable without being spectacular, but bobbed up in the perfect place at the perfect time to slot two of those final flurry of goals.
Then there was Shai Bolton and Hayden Young, two of the most obvious keys to this more potent and exciting version of Fremantle 2026 is turning out. Neither had done much to speak of until three-quarter time (indeed Young had only nine disposals by then).
But both were huge in the final term, Bolton with his energy around the ball and eight of his eventual 22 disposals, Young with nearly half of his modest 15-disposal tally amassed in the last term, but far more significantly, his five score involvements, including the match-sealer with only 90-odd seconds left on the clock.
And then there was Luke Jackson, these days not just a ruckman but a full-on midfield tour de force combining tremendous agility for his size with fierce competitiveness and amazing stamina.
His last term was breathtaking - Jackson not just winning the taps, but the clearances and seemingly all the big contests.
It was his winning a one-on-one groundball ahead of the Hawks' Josh Weddle which ended in Frederick's goal to put Freo within a kick. He won the next ruck throw-up and banged the clearance forward to have Jye Amiss give the Dockers the lead. And his diving smother on Newcombe's attempted kick on the wing was not only one of the most inspirational acts of the season, but ended in Frederick's second goal of the quarter.
No player in the AFL is doing more to underline the continued relevance of ruckmen than this guy, and no player in the Dockers' purple strip is better symbolising the transformation of Justin Longmuir's team from a risk-averse and slightly dour bunch into a side as capable of delivering thrills as anyone.
Freo will still put the clamps on the opposition where necessary, as coach Justin Longmuir was pretty much forced to when Gunston got off the chain early, Brennan Cox's limiting of the Hawk veteran to just one goal after half-time critical.
But the Dockers look a lot more confident in taking greater risks in search of reward these days, too.
If the likes of Jackson, Bolton, Young and the super impressive Murphy Reid are the added flair, or the extra "layers" everyone seems keen to speak of when it comes to the Dockers, the substance really is starting to show, Fremantle's ranking for scoring rate per inside 50 entry having climbed from 10th to fourth.
Yet it's the increased mental toughness of this version of the Dockers which is underpinning that greater amount of polish, Freo's forward 50 groundball differential having gone from 15th last year to first right now.
They've gone from seventh to second for clearances, and 11th to third for contested ball on the differentials, too, now more likely to back themselves to kick to contests and to win possession.
Beyond even that convincing empirical evidence, however, is an even more fundamental truth. One simply about belief.
Fremantle has fluffed its lines so frequently on the biggest stages and in the critical moments that at times its failures have seemed a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And that crucial turnover against the Hawks, from the skipper no less, and the opposition goal which came of it, was the classic moment when a Fremantle surge might typically have fizzled into nothing.
That it didn't happen this time, and indeed was in contrast a catalyst for an inspired burst of football, might well be the strongest sign we've had yet that this ritual disappointment is finally genuinely on the brink of delivering something of real substance.
*You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.