For the first time this year, Fremantle were coming into this game off a win, and facing up to the one opponent who look a chance to challenge them for the wooden spoon this season, so there were some reasons to be confident. On the other side of the coin, there were some injury worries about Modra coming into to the game, and the victory celebrations at the end of last week's game suggested that the team felt that one win was enough for now. Added to that was the fact the game waas at the MCG where the Dockers have never won, that Buckley was returning from injury and itching for a game, and the fact that the game was to be played in 6 degree weather with rain and hail at times which are hardly the Dockers preferred conditions.
Once again accompanied by the lovely Caroline, I arrived nice and early, and was able to get a quiet sheltered spot in the second tier of the Ponsford stand. My early arrival was rewarded by the opportunity to watch Freo warm up about an hour before the game, during a sunny spell. Their ball skills looked refreshing sharp when compared to some previous warm ups I have watched them do. The team went back to their dressing rooms and then the hail started. However it was reasonably dry by the time game started.
The first half was a fairly even tussle. Both sides really struggled to score goals. For a while it looked like Modra might be the difference between the two teams, as he scored 4 of Freo's first 5, and the fifth came from Brodie Holland running onto the crumbs of a Modra marking contest. The play was generally scrappy, as you would expect from a contest between 15th and 16th on the ladder in slippery conditions, but it seemed to me that Fremantle controlled the ball better in general play - finding a man more often, and taking the ball a little more cleanly.
At half time Fremantle were behind, but still in it, and the stats on the big scoreboard reflected the way I had seen the game going. Fremantle were leading the way in kicks, handballs, marks and (surprisingly!) hard ball gets. Collingwood were leading in free kicks and on the scoreboard. Up to this point I felt the umpiring had been poor, but not too biased. Broadly speaking the umpires seemed to be paying just too many free kicks. Given the conditions, the game was never going to be neat or precise, so the umpires oculd have given the players a little more leeway than they did.
Collingwood started the third quarter better, but Fremantle got back into it. In one passage of play Freo had three or four set shots for goal, and missed all of them. This was at the end closest to me, and none of them were shockingly difficult shots. The net result was that Freo were still behind when the umpires decided enough was enough and decided to give Collingwood a goal. They paid holding the ball against Shane Parker on the wing, which looked soft, but vaguely plausible at least. The resulting free kick went to a contest on the Collingwood 50, where another free kick was paid. That kick went into the square where Stephen Patterson was paid a free kick for wearing black and white. Certainly I couldn't see any other reason for him to be given the ball. Patterson kicked truly, and Collingwood followed up with two more quick ones to be 19 points ahead at three-quarter time. The speed with which Freo managed to drop their bundle was quite disconcerting.
The final term was more of the same, really. Patterson kicked two more before the Dockers really started, these ones at least coming more or less from his ability rather than the umpires'. Modra managed another one, and the umpires managed to avoid paying a free in a very bizarre passage. Modra flew for a mark deep in the pocket, then recovered best to get to the ball just in front of the point post. Mal Michael (I think) turned and collared him, dragging him off the ball. For a full 5 seconds nothing happened, then one of the Pies' little men popped in, collected the ball, and they were away. Now surely in that situation either Modra had the ball when he was grabbed, in which case he dropped it and its a free to Collingwood, or he didn't have it, or it spilt free as he was grabbed, in which case its his free. Play on is just plain the wrong decision.
O'Reilly played the last quarter up at centre half forward, which I think was a bad move. Any time you take him away from the back line, they look a lot less reliable back there, and a second strong marking option in slippery conditions is probably not the way to fight back into the game. I'd agree that Freo needed something extra up forward, I just don't think O'Reilly was it on the day.
The most depressing thing was not the fact that Collingwood won - I had resigned myself to that beforehand, and again by three-quarter time - it was the fact that Collingwood won by enough to lift themselves off the bottom. They deserved to win the game, sure, but not by as much as they did. Fremantle are dead last thanks to some very poor umpiring.
Final Score : Collingwood 14.15-99 defeated Fremantle 8.11-59
© 1999 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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