This game represented a major breakthrough in Fremantle's thinking. Peter Mann finally played in defense. He started the game matched up on Gary Lyon, and looked to be doing a realy good job on him. Given Lyon's physical limitations, but canny reading of the play, Mann was an ideal match up for him.
The other interesting match up in the game was Clive Waterhouse at full-forward, where Shanahan started out against him. Clive gave Shanahan the run around a few times in the first half, but it wasn't really something that Freo were able to caitalise on.
Fremantle started well, with good direct play, and an open forward line. They got their fair share of the ball out of the centre, and were able to close off most of Melbourne's attacking options. Meanwhile Maher, Clement and Waterhouse were looking good for Freo. Fremantle were able to score five goals in this first quarter, but Melbourne came back at them and actually hit the front by quarter time.
The second and third quarters were both very tight. Fremantle took a long time to score in either. In the end, though they were able to keep themselve in the contest, and they only trailed by 7 points at three-quarter time.
Sadly Melbourne were able to dominate the final quarter. Even worse than the fact that won was the way in which they won. Two goals from The Dirtiest Man in Football (Jeff Farmer) and a couple from Gary Lyon were what sealed the game, and neither player had contributed much to the game before that. In fact TDMiF finished with two kicks and two goals. I'm still hopeful that Lyon will be reported for attempting to strike Carroll in the last quarter, but I can't see it happening. The gist of the incident was that Lyon was awarded a free kick, at which stage Carroll gave him a bit of shove with a hand in the chest. As Lyon stumbled back a bit, he swung a closed fist in Carroll's direction, which missed by a mile. The MCG crowd of course wanted a 50 against Carroll, but the big screen replay showed Lyon's wussy attempt at a punch very clearly.
Final Score : Melbourne 16.10-106 defeated Fremantle 13.5-83
timnfromoz
© 1998 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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