This game was a celebration of the fact that Kevin Sheedy has spent 25 years coaching Essendon.

Fremantle were actually in front at three-quarter time, but Essendon kicked the first two goals of the last quarter, and that was pretty much it. Freo pulled one back, but then Essendon kicked another 6 unanswered before the end of the game.

No, it probably wouldn't have made any difference to the final outcome, but the umpiring really was horrible. The Essendon fans would have plenty of their own incidents to argue about too, but I still think my ones stand out. The highlight came in the third quarter, when Matthew Carr had a shot for goal while on the run. After kicking the ball, Ty Zantuck ran into him. The free was paid against Zantuck while the ball was in the air. The kick went through for a point, so the player was offered the choice of taking the point, or having another kick. All good so far. The problem was that the umpire offered this choice to Zantuck, not to Carr, and not surprisingly Zantuck said he was happy with the point.

As a general comment about the umpiring, they paid very few free kicks throughout the game. The 3AW commentators thought that was a good thing, and as a general principle, I probably agree, but the thing is that if you don't pay very many free kicks, then it is important that the ones that you do pay should actually be correct decisions.

Final Score : Fremantle 11.16-82 surrendered to Essendon 17.15-117

© 2005 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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