Jesse Hogan in his final game for Fremantle, against Western Bulldogs in Cairns in Round 18. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

When is subtraction actually addition?

In Fremantle’s case, it came two days before the official start of the AFL trade period, when the Dockers’ football manager Peter Bell formally voiced the mercifully inevitable: controversial forward Jesse Hogan is out.

Hogan will be traded this week to Greater Western Sydney after two seasons marred by inconsistent form, personal baggage and exasperating off-field drama, bookended by a club suspension and an $8000 Fremantle Magistrates Court fine.

“It was mutually agreed that Jesse’s future was to be best served playing elsewhere,” Bell told the club’s website. “Of course, we wish Jesse all the very best for the future.”

Translation: “We’ve had a gutful. He’s no longer our problem.”

Fremantle fans salivated at Hogan’s 2018 acquisition, which at the time seemed medium-risk, high-reward.

Despite some personal issues and a navicular injury, at Melbourne Hogan won the 2015 Rising Star award and over three full seasons averaged 44 goals. Sweeter still, he was a local, making his way back home after starring in the east.

But at Fremantle, Hogan kicked a pedestrian 18 goals in just 19 games. Four of those came in a low-pressure September contest against North Melbourne, which by the skin of its teeth avoided the wooden spoon.

Still, many Freo fans on social media were willing to defend, excuse, and even justify Hogan’s every misstep. It was the modern-day return of the prodigal son, wasting his inheritance, and the fans playing the role of proverbial father, forgiving Hogan.

He didn’t have a proper, uninterrupted preseason, some fans posted. Neither did any other AFL player this season, thanks to the COVID-19-created hiatus and interstate hubs.

He was injured, others said. True. In 2019 he missed the remainder of the season after round 14 with a navicular flare-up. But in 2020, after a calf strain, Hogan was fit and available for several weeks, yet couldn’t break into the side, hardly the mark of an indispensable player.

Some fans insisted wet conditions, not form, kept Hogan out of the team. Blaming it on the rain would make even infamous ‘80s pop music charlatans Milli Vanilli laugh.

When Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir experimented in practice matches moving Hogan into defence, many fans insisted that was to cover an injury-wracked backline. But would a low-scoring club really shift a marquee, goalkicking forward it moved heaven and earth to acquire (two early draft picks and a big-money contract) to defence if he were in good form?

Turns out, Hogan’s attitude, in question since 2019, after rocking up to training fresh off a bender and getting banned by the club from making a highly-anticipated home debut, wasn’t too flash, either.

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“He wants to go out there and dominate the game,” Longmuir said. “We’ve been playing a really young side against more mature teams. So he’s been getting a little bit frustrated with the lack of supply and the lack of ball movement to him. We’ve just given him a couple of focus points to work on … just working with the younger players rather than getting frustrated.”

The key words there are “working with.” Hogan’s body language when he did break into the senior side tells the story of a once-star player gorging himself on FIGJAM. Yet some fans even went so far as to blame the very same midfield corps they generally praised, for Hogan’s lacklustre performances, saying they weren’t kicking it to him properly.

Fremantle’s midfield is ripe with young, impressionable talent. Andy Brayshaw and Adam Cerra shone under Longmuir this year, as did Darcy Tucker before injury cut his season short. Caleb Serong thrived most of all, earning this year’s Rising Star award, while others showed promise.

What’s better for them? Steady leadership from club stalwart and role model David Mundy, who Fremantle can quickly move to re-sign after off-loading Hogan, or a grumpy, “me first” teammate?

Hogan’s struggling with his personal demons is well-documented; overcoming testicular cancer, grieving over his father’s death, and a mental health issue leading to what Bell described as “poor decisions around alcohol consumption.” Hogan himself conceded he’d be “forever in debt to the club for the care and support they have provided for me”.

But breaking the club’s COVID-19 quarantine protocol and state law — not even a single day after returning from Queensland at season’s end, as Hogan did, doesn’t scream gratitude.

His attorney’s court testimony, blaming Hogan’s poor judgment on a sexual “dry spell” and casting him as the victim to the spell of a seductive Jezebel, was flatly sexist and even more embarrassing.

Still some fans shrugged at Hogan’s antics, ignoring what they really were — putting his needs before the club’s. Some even blamed the news media for reporting the events.

Maybe the most jaw-dropping rationalisation for Hogan’s Fremantle failure came from a poster blaming the club’s culture.

Seriously?

Longmuir earned nothing but rave reviews from players, pundits, opposing coaches and most Freo supporters for establishing a culture of commitment, responsibility, and accountability.

To a man, Docker players at the club’s recent Doig Medal count pledged to stay in WA in the off-season to avoid any possible lengthy COVID-19 quarantine that could interrupt pre-season training. They voiced passion and hunger.

Hogan? Yeah-nah.

Some Fremantle fans may lament that at 25, Hogan’s best footy may be ahead. One poster even lauded Hogan as a 60-goal-a-year player – his season high is 47.

Maybe Hogan will recapture his old form at GWS. More importantly, he must summon courage, discipline and character to mature and recover his optimal mental wellbeing.

And for Fremantle fans revering Hogan and remaining in denial about two years in which he contributed next to nothing, hopefully soon they’ll see the bigger picture – that the club added to the prospect of a bright future by subtracting him.