The regular season returned after a week's break for the State of Origin games last weekend. WA crowds showed yet again that they hate watching their boys lose to the Allies, while the South Australians turned out in force to see Victoria just scrape home. Interestingly, Port and Fremantle were the two teams with most origin representation so both were equally (dis)advantaged by the week off.
Both teams really needed to win to confirm themselves as genuine finals contenders. Port have been doing well at home, and couldn't really afford to start losing there, while Freo needed an away win to give themselves any sort of chance of a run at Sepetember.
Seven's coverage of the game was at least live, but Melbourne didn't join the game until 10:15, and I wasn't able to tune in until scores were level about halfway through the final quarter. What I saw then was not inspirational, as both sides were making plenty of errors. Having apparently ground their way back into the game, Freo seemed to just let it go from the moment I joined it. Perhap Port found something extra, but it looked like the familiar scenario of Freo fighting back into a game, then relaxing and resting on their laurels without actually taking the time to win the game.
Hunter looks to have been back to his best at fullforward - kicking 3 goals, which doesn't sound that great, except that they were 3 of Freo's 7 goals. Sadly that is likely to mean that we won't be seeing much of Dan Parker in the near future. In the end Freo's inaccuracy in front of goals seems to have cost them the game, as both teams had an identical number of scoring shots. Interestingly, The Age lists Peter Mann as having collected an astounding eleven free kicks. He must have done something to catch the umpire's eye, as he is listed as having taken just one mark, and having had 11 disposals in the course of the game. Or it could be a typo.
Final Score : Port Adelaide 10.9-69 defeated Fremantle 7.12-54
timn_from_oz
© 1997 t.neame@trl.telstra.com.au
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