Top-of-the-ladder Fremantle have been installed as outright premiership favourites by bookmakers.

The Dockers are now the league’s top flag pick with most bookmakers after two-time reigning premiers Brisbane slipped up against Greater Western Sydney on Sunday in their second consecutive defeat.

The Lions gave up the biggest third-quarter score in VFL/AFL history against the Giants.

Fremantle and Brisbane face-off at the Gabba on Saturday in a high-stakes blockbuster.

Justin Longmuir’s side extended their winning run to a club-record 10 games with their 30-point win over Ross Lyon’s St Kilda on Friday night.

Major betting sites have Freo between $5 and $6 to win their maiden premiership this year, while some have them sharing top billing with Geelong after their win over Sydney.

Fremantle were on the seventh line of betting before the season, sitting alongside Western Bulldogs and figuring behind Brisbane, Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney and Adelaide.

But they face their biggest test since their round one loss to Geelong on Saturday. The Dockers have been on the wrong side of their past five meetings at the Gabba.

AFL legend Matthew Lloyd said they are deserving flag favourites if they can topple the Lions.

The Essendon champion pointed to Fremantle’s fourth-quarter blitzes to topple the Saints and Hawthorn in front of their home supporters as recent weeks, which he described as “destructive”.

“It was brave from St Kilda — they lost all of their backline bar (Cooper) Sharman leading up to the game, so it was a pretty good fight from them, but I just love Fremantle’s belief,” Lloyd told the Sunday Footy Show.

“They go to the Gabba this week — if they can go on and beat Brisbane at the Gabba this week, they should be, I think, genuinely premiership favourites.”

Fremantle were knocked out in the semifinal in 2023 before suffering a surprise defeat to Gold Coast in last year’s elimination final.

But former Port Adelaide coach and premiership-winning Geelong assistant Ken Hinkley said he did not subscribe to the theory a team needed to make a deep run into September before they could be considered legitimate contenders.

“If you’re ready, you’re ready, I think,” Hinkley told SEN.

“I do believe that your list has got to have great depth in it, and they’ve got great depth. They’ve got match-winners — if you’ve got match-winners on every line, you can win a flag. It’s as simple as that for me.”

West Coast’s 2018 premiership-winning coach Adam Simpson agreed, saying the extra maturity he had observed in the Dockers was again on display in their win over the Saints.

“Their leaders — and they were missing a few — their on-field leadership and their ability to control a game and control momentum during quarters . . . this team seems to work it out themselves on-field,” Simpson said.

“The last quarter, it really started to build and build and build, and all of a sudden, it was a flex, it really was.

“If they finish top two and they get two home finals, it’ll be a different story than Adelaide last year.”