This game was between third and fourth on the AFL ladder. Fremantle came into the game on the back of a club record five game winning streak, while Port had won seven of their last eight games. Even so, it came as a bit of a shock to me to discover that Channel 9 actually intended to show the game on TV here in Melbourne.

Port had the better of the first quarter, but they were kicking with the breeze, so the fat that Freo were less than two goals down at quarter time was probably not a bad result for Freo. Port were certainly on top for most of the quarter, but their goal kicking let them down. Particularly amusing was a running shot for goal from about 25 m out that went straight through for a point.

Fremantle drew level with Port at about the 20 minute mark of the second quarter, and I took that as my signal to go and play indoor cricket. It was too good to last though, and by the time I got to the indoor cricket centre, it was half time and Fremantle were 13 points down.

I watched the second half of the game on video, having already heard the final result. Obviously I am a sucker for punishment. Tredrea kicked three off his own boot in the third quarter, and that, combined with the fact that Port effectively kicked six goals to Freo's one was about it for the game. Freo had the breeze for the last quarter, apparently, but Port still out-scored them.

This game, and especially the second half, was probably the worst game I have seen Freo play this season. I suspect that a lot of the cliches about young sides being very inconsistent are probably fair descriptions for how Freo is going at the moment. Its hard to know whether Freo were bad, or Port were very good, but there were some pretty obvious comparisons that could be drawn. Tredrea kicked seven for Port from centre half forward. Croad kicked one for Freo. To be fair to Croad, he actually looked like he did a few good things during the game, but to me, he's not a natural centre half forward like Tredrea. Polack might be, but Croad ain't, and I think Connolly should swap their roles.

I will just finish with my mandatory whinge about the umpiring. There were three things that got on my goat, if thats the right turn of phrase. The first was a running shot for goal in the second quarter from one of the Burgoynes. Sure, he was only 10m out when he had the shot, and it would be safe to assume that he couldn't possibly have missed, but I think he did, and Dermie agreed with me. The second was the umpiring of play on with Tredrea in the third quarter. In one incident, he marked near the goal line, crossed the goal line, then walked back around to be in play before playing on to kick a goal. Now, surely if he played on, then the whole motion was play on, and he was out of play with the ball, so it was a point. Something similar happened later in the quarter, when Tredrea again played on from a mark, and Polack was able to smother his kick. But this time the umpire had whistled time on, and so it wasn't allowed to count, and Tredrea got his shot at goal (which he kicked). The final incident was a passage of play in the last quarter when Port worked the ball to Freo's 50m line. There was a huge sequence of passes and tackled, with no one getting a clear possession. After about 30 seconds of that, the umpire decided on a free kick for Wanganeen. To be fair, that kick was probably there, but so were about four (to both sides, not just to Freo) before that. Wanganeen really is developing into a potential fourth umpire candidate.

Final Score : Port Adelaide 16.16-112 beat Fremantle 9.9-63.

© 2003 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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