This game was played at Football Park in Adelaide in front of Port's lowest ever crowd in the AFL. A lot of people interpreted this to reflect upon the job the AFL have been doing this season (attendences have been down across the board), but an alternative explanation is that nobody was that thrilled about seeing a side coming off a 15 goal thrashing play against a side who is pretty much everyone's tip for the wooden spoon.

In Melbourne we got a two hour highlights package, which meant we got most of the game, with none of the half time boredom, so it probably worked out pretty well. One thing I noticed fairly early on was that the Dockers seem to have gotten rid of their "basketball-style" away jumper. In fact, I think they were playing in their home jumpers - not the mostly green jumpers they used before they changed to the travesty.

Early in the first quarter Port suffered a bit of a setback when the Buns of Steel struck again. Port forward Brendon Lade went up for a mark, leaping into a Freo player who was backing into his path. When Lade came down he had a broken leg, and had to be stretchered off the ground. The replay showed that the man he had collided with was none other than the Buns of Steel himself, Mr Shane Parker.

Port probably had the better of the first quarter, but were perhaps a little inaccurate, kicking 3.5 for the quarter. The Dockers really got on top in the second half of the second quarter, and once they were on top they stayed on top. By the end of the game Port were kicking square, and going round in circles, while Fremantle were running hard, and kicking directly. Basically it all worked for them. At one stage, apparently, Freo got 8 goals ahead, before the PAPs managed to claw a couple back.

Clem Michael rucked pretty much all night for the Dockers, with Bandy holding down centre half back. The combination of Fewster and Clive on the half forward line impressed me again, with Clive kicking three, and giving away several others. I get the impression that Clive has finally figured out that he is not a soccer style striker who needs to do something really impressive to score a goal, and that he can afford to share the ball aroudn a bit more.

One of the things that impressed me about the result was the fact that the Dockers were able to win despite the fact that Fletcher had a very quiet night. Fletch had something like two possessions up until three-quarter time, before he bobbed up a bit more in the last quarter after the pressure eased off a bit. Without him, and with Norrish missing due to injury, a few of the younger players stepped in to fill the breach, among them McManus, Callaghan and Hasleby. Hasleby wasn't quite as good as last week, but he was certainly passable. Callaghan's game was good enough to make me wonder where he's been hiding for most of the last 12 months. Whether it was a loss of form, or him just not fitting in with Drum's plans, I'll never know, but it was good to have him back.

Final Score : Port Adelaide 12.15-87 lost to Fremantle 19.11-125

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