a fall out with the Coach of Essendon at the time, Matthew Knights. McPhee was expected to nominate to be drafted to another club and as expected, his former club Fremantle selected him with their selection in the pre-season draft. The possible move to Fremantle had been heavily criticised in some circles, partly as a result of the club's recent history in drafting mature-age recruits, but it has been applauded in other circles as the club gave up virtually nothing to land him. His first match against his old club Essendon saw him hit the post twice, drop marks and kick out of bounds on the full right in front of Bombers fans who booed him consistently throughout the match. Despite his clangers, Fremantle managed to upset Essendon by 44 points. After McPhee's tough start in his return to Fremantle, he improved as the season went on after a change in role. McPhee played his best football for the Dockers towards the end of the season as a run-with player (tagger), a role which requires stopping the influence of the opposition team's most damaging players. McPhee's best game came against Hawthorn in the Elimination final, keeping Hawks champion Luke Hodge to just 13 disposals, and only 5 in the first three quarters. In 2012 McPhee returned to the backline under new coach Ross Lyon, but mainly played on the smaller forwards. At the end of the 2012 season, a month after signing a one-year contract extension, McPhee retired from AFL football for family reasons. While there was much speculation he would return to his former club, the Essendon Football Club, he returned to Melbourne to work for his father-in-law's company. He continues to play football and as of 2015 is playing for St Mary's in the Geelong Football League. Statistics |- |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2001 |style="text-align:center;"| | 17 || 14 || 5 || 3 || 116 || 65 || 181 || 61 || 32 || 0.4 || 0.2 || 8.3 || 4.6 || 12.9 || 4.4 || 2.3 || 0 |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2002 |style="text-align:center;"| | 17 || 11 || 4 || 1 || 71 || 37 || 108 || 46 || 17 || 0.4 || 0.1 || 6.5 || 3.4 || 9.8 || 4.2 || 1.5 || 0 |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2003 |style="text-align:center;"| | 33 || 24 || 10