Coming into this week, Fremantle were one of three teams without a win, but with Richmond playing Melbourne on Sunday, at least one of them was going to record a win.
We were lucky enough to score seats about 3 rows back, at the Bourke St end. That was unfortunate on two counts: firstly, we came in at the LaTrobe St end, so the seats were as far away as it was possible to get; and much more importantly, Fremantles scored a total of two points kicking to that end.
This game was best summed up by a moment at the end of the first quarter. St Kilda had already scored 5 goals, and Fremantle hadn't opened their account. Freo finally had a successful foray forwards, with Luke MacPharlin taking a good mark about 25m out from goal. I commented that Freo had cut it fine, but it looked like they were going to scrape through and provide the one goal per quarter I need. Needless to say, MacPharlin missed, and about 20 seconds later, the siren sounded.
I struggle to find much to get excited about with this game. Unlike the Fremantle teams of old, there's no sense of adventure and excitement at the moment. In the good old, bad old, days the results might have been just as much of a foregone conclusion, but at least there was Clive or Scotty Chisholm, or even Jeff Farmer to provide a bit of entertainment along the way. The closest I could manage with this game was a bit of a laugh at Kepler Bradley trying to dodge round two opponents.
According to the paper, St Kilda's first 8 goals all came as a result of Fremantle turnovers. I didn't notice it being that bad, but it's pretty fair to say that I wasn't exactly awestruck by Fremantle's precise ball skills. The other thing I noticed was that the intensity seemed down, even compared to the game against Essendon a couple of weeks ago. In that game, the players seemed to have no idea about what to do with the ball, but at least there were a couple of times where they smothered and tackled and generally applied pressure.
The only positive I can think of is that at least we lost by less than West Coast lost by when they played St Kilda last week.
Final Score : St Kilda 17.9-111 beat Fremantle 4.4-28
© 2009 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
Return to TimN's Home Page