If I got it right, this was the only game of the round between two teams who were in the top 8. Collingwood, having played themselves into some form since the break, were in 7th spot, and Freo were in 6th. That, combined with the fact that Collingwood legend Bob Rose died during the week, made this game the centre of a fair amount of attention. Not having been raised in Victoria, I had never heard of Bob Rose prior to this, but during the week we have had plenty of retrospectives about him, so I pretty much caught up. But just in case I missed it, there was a video retrospective on the big screen at the MCG before the game, followed by the national anthem and a minute's silence.

In other background to the game, Fremantle finally gave up on Trent Croad, and sent him back to play WAFL footy for Claremont for the first time. He got to play alongside Clive there. Clive is currently stalled on 99 AFL games, and from what I have heard, his performances at Claremont haven't exactly got him pressing for that 100th game any time soon. Apparently the WAFL has a salary cap of $160,000 a year, so you'd think that Claremont are getting a fair amount of talent on the cheap at the moment. On the other side of the fence, it was Chris Tarrant's 100th game for Collingwood, but James Clement missed the game with a torn hamstring.

With the whole Bob Rose thing, there was some speculation that there would be 50,000+ at the game. In the end there was only a bit over 40,000. The forecasts earlier in the week had been predicting rain and hail, which may have kept some people away, but on the day itself there was only a single brief shower, and a fair chunk of the game was played in sunshine.

The score line says it all really. Fremantle just seem to be incapable of kicking a winning score away from Subiaco at the moment. Medhurst and Longmuir were both very, very quiet throughout the game. Farmer gave them something before half time, but he didn't appear after half time. Pavlich was reasonable, but a bit inaccurate. All in all, the Freo forward line certainly didn't look as menacing as the Collingwood one did.

Final Score : Collingwood 15.9-99 beat Fremantle 7.16-58.

© 2003 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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