Both teams went into this game looking to win their third game in a row. The difference between the two clubs was that, had Freo achieved that, it would have been the first time ever they'd managed it, whereas Carlton have had runs of over 10 wins on the trot within the last few years.
The first quarter was a pretty even affair, though Fremantle needed to get the better of the umpiring to keep it that way. Daniel Parker goaled early, but that was to be pretty much his last touch for the game, as Silvagni had much the better of him on the day. Fortunately O'Reilly was able to dominate Kernahan in much the same way at the other end.
In the second quarter Carlton added six goals to Fremantle's 2, to open out a very handy lead by half time. Fremantle made too many mistakes during this quarter, with first gamer Trent Carroll being one of the worst offenders. Carroll did show promise, but his mistakes proved costly - resulting in at least one goal. Other goals came when the Fremantle defense seemed prepared to back away and let the Carlton running players - Bradley in particular - run at the goals.
Shane Parker failed to reappear after half time, and the folly of this coaching error was made immediately obvious as by half way through the third quarter Carlton were 38 points up, and it looked like the game was all over. Fortunately from that point on Fremantle rallied strongly, even in the absence of Parker. Fremantle kicked 8 of the next 10 goals, to get within 3 points of Carlton, before the Blues kicked away again in the final few minutes of the game.
Midway through this roll came one of the worse umpiring decisions in the match, with the Fourth Umpire being awarded a free kick for an incident off the play, in which Scott Chisholm apparently picked him up and threw him to the ground. This incident happened while the ball was about 75-100m away, so I would have thought that the decision would be either a report or nothing, but its hard to argue with the Fourth Umpire. Chisholm, of course should immediately have dobbed Williams into the umpire for racial villification - regardless of what was said - but he didn't. Fortunately the net result was a point, and Scott Chisholm getting really fired up for the rest of the quarter, so it wasn't all bad.
While on the racial villification deal, Steve Silvagni had obviously let the wife's on-going morning sickness get to him, and said something that upset the Aboriginal players, as both Kickett and Chisholm went well out their way to deliver hefty bumps to him during the course of the game. Or perhaps it was just a case of keeping him in his place, and teaching him that if he came out of his defensive 50 he'd wish he hadn't.
The fourth quarter started with Gary Dhurrkay and Chisholm on fire, and the Dockers looking like they may well be unstoppable. The Dockers had all the run, and were taking the ball out of the centre with ease. But somehow that all came to an end just after BenAllan added a goal. Carlton were able to add the next too, while Fremantle's efforts to go forward all ended with Peter Mann. To be fair, it wasn't just Mann. The whole Freo froward line seemed to lack the kind of desperation that you would expect to see given the situation. And the final result speaks for itself.
Final Score : Carlton 16.9-105 defeated Fremantle 14.4-88
timn_from_oz
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