This game was Fremantle's last visit to Melbourne for the season. Well, subject to Freo making the finals anyway. It was also Nathan Buckley's 250th AFL game, which probably had more to do with drumming up a crowd than the opportunity to see Freo, but anyway. (Actually, I suspect it was Nafe's 251st VFL/AFL game - either you have to count VFL games, in which case the game at Williamstown earlier this season, or he would be well short of 250 in the AFL only, but lets not get too carried away with details.) Anyway, with that, and the bright sunshine, there was a reasonable sized crowd at the MCG. A lot of the areas seemed to be closed off for public access, so I wound up climbing to Level 4, and sat on the north side of the ground, near to the MCC Members enclosure.

The game started with Medhurst dominating in the forward line. In fact, he scored 2.2 before anyone else on either side managed to contribute anything. Eventually the umpires found a free kick to pay to Buckley, which he duly converted for a point to break Medhurst's run. Freo managed another goal to Sandilands before Collingwood finally managed to break the drought and score their first at about the 19 minute mark.

Freo had an 11 point lead at quarter time, but a goal to Buckley followed by a random free kick, plus 50m to Prestigiacomo that resulted in another goal put the pies out in front. Fortunately Freo still had Pavlich on the park, and he was able to score 3 goals for the quarter. Peake had a shot for goal after the half time siren, but failed to register a score, and Collingwood finished up winning the quarter, but perhaps not by as much as they should have.

The third quarter started the same way as the second, with another goal to Buckley. Then there was a bit of a break while Lonie got stretchered off, which seemed strange to me. There's nothing strange about the fact that Lonie got hurt, that was most unfortunate for him. But he injured his leg as he rolled over the boundary line, and was therefore outside the field of play, so I don't understand why it was necessary for the game to be stopped for the stretcher bearers to run across the ground to get to him. He was taken straight into the rooms, so they didn't cross back over to bring him back.

After the dramas, Pavlich lined up a shot for goal, and kicked his 5th for the day. The rest of the quarter was fairly tight, but towards the end of the quarter, Pavlich went for a huge leap and mangaed to hurt his hip when he landed. He went straight off. Collingwood finished the quarter with a shot to Licuria on the siren which was a goal, and score were level at three-quarter time.

I was pretty nervous at this stage. Pavlich was injured, the Pies were coming back, and even worse, the other games had gone exactly the way we needed them to. All Freo needed to do was win the game, and they would sneak their way into the 8. I figured that was bound to be the kiss of death.

Fortunately I was completely wrong. Pavlich came back on and started the quarter with a great smother, followed by a kick in the suqare where Medhurst soccered the goal. That was followed by goals to J. Carr and Black to stretch Freo to a 15 point lead. Collingwood looked threatening for a while, before Headland managed to mark and goal to put Freo 19 points in front. Just when it was looking good, a mark to Grover was paid as a free kick to Tarrant, and then Collingwood followed that up with another goal to make the margin 7 points. Fortunately Freo were able to hang on and work it forward, and J. Carr kicked another goal to make the final margin 13 points.

I'm sure most Collingwood fans would go absolutely feral about me complaining about the umpiring, but it was pretty poor. Collingwood felt particularly harshly treated with the umpiring of the duel between Tarrant and Parker - to the extent that the free kick paid to Tarrant got a standing ovation. To be honest, I can see their point of view, but, with the exception of the random free kick in the last quarter, at least the umpiring was consistent there. Where the umpiring was not consistent was in the treatment of holding the man and holding the ball. It was one rule for Buckley and then one rule for the rest of the world. Another one that peeved me was that there was a free kick paid to Bell in the 3rd quarter when he was pushed in the back after he kicked it. Despite the fact that the contact came well after the kick, the free was paid to Bell rather than down the ground.

Final Score : Fremantle 15.8-98 beat Collingwood 12.13-85

© 2005 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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