Fremantle went into this historic game with their full complement of Parkers, so it was clear from the outset that they were taking it seriously. And so too were the Adelaide crowd, with over 20,000 showing up to see Port's first official AFL outing.
As would be expected, it wasn't long before the Parkers stamped their indelible mark on the game, with Daniel booting the first two goals of the game, before the umpires gifted a goal to Scott Hodges to break Port's duck. Nevertheless, despite some valiant work by Peter Mann, the Dockers were able to dominate the first quarter, and went in six goals up at quarter time.
The free scoring of the first quarter dried up in the second, as the Port defence tightened up, and Mann continued to break up the Docker's attacks. With a total of only four goals scored in the quarter, I decided to watch Frasier instead. While I found the brave effort of Frasier's father in playing on with what was obviously a sickening knee injury to be most inspiring, I went back to the footy in time for the second half.
There was both good and bad news for me when I returned, with Gerard Neesham having dragged both Peter Mann and Daniel Parker. With only one Parker left on the field, it was to be expected that the remainder of the game was really quite dull.
My respect for the Port ruckman, who seemed remarkably adept at covering in defence was somewhat lessened when I realised that Primus and Paxman were in fact separate people. The Thighstrap Twins, Jeff White and Daniel Bandy, both had good nights against the diminished, though still hulking Primus. And a particular highlight was the nasty wound that Port's Francou managed to open up a nasty looking head wound when he decided to take a nap using Mitchell's knee as a pillow. The remaining Parker naturally dominated across halfback, and at the end of the night, Fremantle ran out winners by 36 points.
All that remained then was for Timmy Watson to rubbish the Docker's playing style for a little longer - after all if they'd kicked longer more often they could have won by more! - before we crossed to the change rooms. The team made a brave effort to sing the club song, but in the end it was all too hard, and it was a relief when we finally crossed to the cricket.
The victory here earnt Fremantle a quarter final berth against Carlton the following Saturday.
Score at stumps Port Power 4.15-39 lost to Fremantle Dockers 11.9-75
timn_from_oz
© 1997 t.neame@trl.telstra.com.au
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