Despite the fact that the Sydney Olympics in September has pushed the AFL season so far forward that this game was actually played in January, I managed to drag myself out to Waverley to watch this game. I even persuaded the lovely Caroline to come with me, even though we left after we had eaten the sushi I had bought to bribe her with.

I think this game had originally been scheduled for the new Docklands stadium, but by all accounts that was nowhere near ready for a game of footy, so the game was out at Waverley. All the traditional joys of a visit to Waverley were there: a tiny crowd, feezing weather, uncomfortable seating, rain. Its no wonder people want it saved.

The Ansett Cup has given the AFL an excuse to try out wacky rules in the past, and this season has been no exception. Who can forget the joys of the "if it bounces off the goal post into play, the ball is still playable" rule, the "if it goes out of bounds, its a free kick" rule or the pure exhiliration of seeing a goal umpire waving his red flag to signal three points when the ball hits the post.

This year's new rule was inspired by the rules used for the international series against Ireland at the end of the year. The gist of the rule is that a player who is not on his feet may not take possession of the ball, and must knock it on. It appears that an exception is made for a player taking a mark. The aim of the rule is to prevent packs forming over the ball, and to reduce the time wasted in "ugly" pack situations. From what I saw at this game, its yet another excuse for umpires to permit very dubious disposals. Broadly speaking, the interpretation used was "If the player handballs the ball he must have had possession, so I'll ping him, but if he scoops it up and flings it out of the pack, thats OK." And so the skill of the handball disappears at is replaced with the volleyball set. From all reports, it is apparently unlikely that this rule will appear in real AFL games any time soon.

The first half was not particularly inspiring. Carlton's Matthew Allen dominated the ruck, and seemed able to just wander around the ground at will. Carlton looked a lot better than Freo, but the Dockers did reasonably well to stay with them, and be only three goals down at half time. To be honest, it looked like the main difference between the two teams was the number of mistakes they made. Since Fremantle had room for improvement and Carlton didn't really, I was even vaguely hopeful at half time.

All that hope was completely destroyed in the first few minutes of the second half. Carlton piled on goal after goal, seeming scoring at will. The few times the Dockers got their hands on the ball, they turned it over quickly and easily. In the end Carlton piled on 8 goals for the quarter, with about 5 or 6 coming in the first 10 minutes. I don't know about the Freo players, but it broke my spirit. What made it even worse was that Stephen O'Reilly was a major contributor to the carnage.

Just before three-quarter time it started to drizzle. That was the last straw for me. It was pretty obvious Freo weren't going to pull this game out of the hat, and I just wasn't excited by what I had seen, so we went home. As we were making our way out of the ground, Freo finally broke through and scored a goal, but even that wasn't enough to make me turn back. From what I saw on the TV replay at home, the main parts of the game I missed were Tone's miracle soccered goal, and Clive Waterhouse being reported for charging Murray Vance. Clive managed to break Vance's jaw, and it certainly wasn't a pretty challenge, but my understanding of what is and isn't legal in AFL is that it was a naughty, but not reportable. Of course, my understanding is wrong, because Clive was suspended for two weeks.

Final Score : Carlton 22.14-146 defeated Fremantle 9.8-62

© 2000 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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