Fremantle got a second Friday night game in a row, this week against Collingwood. Prior to the game, lot of the interest, in the mede-ya anyway, was around the fact that this was the first time we would see Tarrant lining up against his old club. In the more broad-minded press, Medhurst also rated a mention, but that kind of coverage doesn't get much attention here in Melbourne.

Freo got off to a flying start in the first quarter. They looked really good for the first 10 minutes or so, and kicked 3 goals while the Pies could only manage one, and that came from two consecutive free kicks. Towards the end of the quarter Collingwood started to look a lot better. They won the ball out of the clearances a bit more often, and they definitely looked to be playing more flowing football when they went into attack.

The second quarter started with a goal to Pavlich, and then one to Big Anferny, before settling down to some complete rubbish football from both sides. By half time Freo were still ahead, but only by 5 points.

The main little league game at half time was a ripper. For once I was seated reasonably close to the wing, albeit up on the top level of the Olympic Stand, so I was actually in a position to watch the little league. The Little Freo kicked 6 or 7 goals during the game, and completely dominated. I took that as a good omen for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, omens can be misleading. If the third quarter is the "premiership" quarter, then there is a good chance that Freo won't be winning premierships any time soon. This time, Collingwood kicked 5.5 to Freo's 2.5 in the third quarter. The Pies opened up with 3 points in a row, to get to within 2 points, before Freo responded with 3 points of their own. Then the umpires paid a random free kick to The Last Cloke who kicked a goal and Collingwood hit the front. Collingwood followed that up with two more within just a few mionutes, and that was pretty much that.

The highlight of the third quarter was Leon Davis taking a big one-handed specky over the top of Michael Johnson, and then following it up with a goal. Sadly, that wasn't a highlight for Freo, but it was good to watch. And he was even able to do it without giving away a free kick for the hands in the back.

Fremantle were able to finish the game with another period of dominance. They threw pretty much everything at the Pies, but couldn't close the gap to actually get in front. The ball spent a lot of time in the Freo forward 50, but they just couldn't get it between the big sticks when they needed to. Tarrant and Pavlich both missed shots that they should have been able to kick.

In the end, the scoreboard shows that Freo had more scoring shots than Collingwood, so it really was accuracy that cost them the game. Another way of saying the same thing is that Tarrant and Pavlich both got plenty of the ball - 20+ possessions each in fact - but between them they kicked 4.9. At the other end, Rocca kicked 5 straight, from about that many possessions, and Davis also didn't get a lot of the ball, but still managed to kick 4 straight. If it wasn't for Dale Thomas, who pretty much missed one very easy shot at goal each quarter, Collingwood could have ended up with a perfect record on the goal-shooting front.

Final Score : Collingwood 15.13-103 deafeated Fremantle 13.16-94

© 2007 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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