After a one week break for the State of Origin game, it was back to the real thing on Friday night. Over the break Melbourne had been making big noises about how they were going to put their previous losses behind them and really come out hard after the break. With games their first two games back being against Freo and Collingwood, they were obviously looking to get things back on track with a couple of easy wins. Adding to Melbourne's confidence was the return of Garry Lyon for his first game of the year, and the fact that this game was to be played at the MCG. For Fremantle things were a lot less bright. They still had a perfect record of 10 games and 10 losses at the MCG coming into the game.
The first half was dominated by two Dockers - Modra and Bandy. Bandy managed to beat Jeff White all over the ground, just to prove that Freo hung onto the right ruckman. To be fair to White though, White was unusually quiet and Bandy was unusually good on the night, so he will no doubt bounce back. The other star was Modra. He kicked seven before half time, and for a while he personally had scored more than the Melbourne total. Just on half time Gary Lyon actually touched the ball, and fired a long bomb that crossed the line for a goal just after the siren sounded. That kick was enough to draw Melbourne level with Modra, although their inaccuracy had cost them the opportunity to hit the lead. Of course the Dockers will still leading by six goals.
After half time Bandy's dominance started to tail off, and Jeff White actually started winning some ruck taps. Melbourne still didn't have what it took to win though, and in the end the Dockers were able to stretch their lead in the third quarter. Melbourne pegged them back slightly in the last quarter - winning the quarter by a whole two points. The first three quarters were definitely a joy for me to watch though, with Freo outscoring Melbourne by 6 goals to 3 in each of those quarters.
Final Score : Fremantle 22.12-144 thrashed Melbourne 13.12-90.
© 1999 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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