In times of crisis, turn to your leaders. In times of pressure, turn to your leaders. And on the big stage of a derby, turn to your leaders.

Fremantle’s leaders stepped up big time during Sunday’s western derby to end a six-game losing streak and hand the Dockers a 15.16 (106) to 10.8 (68) victory over West Coast.

This was a day where vice-captain Caleb Serong won a record equalling fourth Glendinning-Allan Medal after 35 disposals and 10 clearances. He was a force to be reckoned with all day.

It was a day where the club’s other vice-captain Andrew Brayshaw kept winning the footy in contests and putting his body on the line. He had 29 touches, six clearances and seven tackles and finished runner-up to Serong for the medal.

And it was a day where skipper Alex Pearce totally blanketed West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen. The Dockers had only one other member of their leadership team out there. That man was Josh Treacy and he kicked thee goals in the second term. He also got Glendining-Allan Medal votes. The leaders led.

But this derby needed to be about more than them. Heading into the western derby, Fremantle midfielder Nathan O’Driscoll made it clear the only way his team would rise up the ladder was if players with similar experience to him started making key improvements to their game.

The Dockers suffered a blow before the game when they lost Jaeger O’Meara (illness) and Corey Wagner (injury). That left them even more inexperienced in a season where a host of senior players have been unavailable.

But by quarter time, Fremantle had kicked five goals and all of them were by men who had played 50 games or less.

It started with O’Driscoll, then came Matthew Johnson, followed by two goals from debutant Isaiah Dudley and then another from Jye Amiss.

The Dockers were dominating field position after having 21 inside 50s to West Coast’s seven, but the Eagles made Fremantle pay for silly errors.

West Coast’a first goal followed a down-field free kick against Pat Voss, followed by them not rushing the ball through for a point. Tyler Brockman pounced and snapped truly.

When Jeremy Sharp dropped a chest mark, Liam Ryan dribbled through another.

Fremantle also suffered from Treacy copping a finger to the eye amid a goal celebration.

But the Dockers made up for mistakes by constantly applying pressure.

The second term was an arm wrestle as neither team to take a clear advantage. Fremantle wasted shots at goal and then Jamie Cripps nailed a tough one down he other end.

But this was Treacy’s quarter. He kicked three goals for the term, took two contested marks and gave the Dockers a 26-point lead at the long break.

The trend had already been established by Fremantle.

Serong and Brayshaw had combined for 32 possessions and eight clearances to stamp themselves as Fremantle’s stars. That included a thumping tackle from Brayshaw on Tim Kelly in the dying stages of the half before he got back to his feet, found Treacy inside 50 and he kicked truly after the siren.

But Fremantle didn’t have all of their eggs in the Serong and Brayshaw basket. At one key point, after they opened up a 20-point lead, they went to a centre bounce with Johnson, Erasmus and O’Driscoll as their preferred set up.

Liam Baker was working hard for the Eagles in the middle and Ryan looked dangerous whenever he got near the ball, but they were lacking a target inside 50 with Allen having just one touch for the half.

West Coast got the opening goal of the third term but couldn’t get two in a row. Every time they kicked a major, Serong and Brayshaw did something special.

It was Serong to Brayshaw who combined to get the ball to Pat Voss who then to the top of the square where Luke Jackson took the mark and kicked the goal. Jackson was enormous all day. It also was Brayshaw to Clark for another goal.

It was Serong nailing Tim Kelly with a savage tackle inside West Coast’s forward 50. Harley Reid took a specky and converted the set shot to give the Eagles fans reasons to celebrate. But Fremantle had all the answers.

Allen had only one possession in three quarters and ended up in defence after Harry Edwards was subbed out and then Jeremy McGovern suffered a groin injury. West Coast trailed by 36 points with one quarter remaining and while the whole footy world knew the Dockers have struggled late in games, the Eagles weren’t close enough to mount the challenge.

Murphy Reid and Shai Bolton had 10 score involvements each and Jye Amiss finished with four goals. Fremantle won the inside 50s a whopping 65-37 as they hit triple figures for the first time since last year’s western derby.

SCOREBOARD

FREMANTLE 5.4, 8.6, 12.11, 15.16 (106)

WEST COAST 3.1, 4.4, 7.5, 10.8 (68)

Goals - FREMANTLE: J Amiss 4 J Treacy 3 I Dudley 2 P Voss N O’Driscoll M Johnson L Jackson M Frederick J Clark

WEST COAST: A Reid 2 J Cripps 2 J Williams L Ryan H Reid M Owies J Hunt T Brockman

Best - FREMANTLE: C Serong A Brayshaw L Jackson J Treacy A Pearce J Amiss WEST COAST: B Hough R Maric L Baker T Dewar

Injuries - FREMANTLE: Nil WEST COAST: J McGovern (groin)

Umpires: D Johanson J Dalgleish S Meredith N Toner. Crowd: 53,289 at Optus Stadium.