With five games out of the way, and still no wins, things were looking a little desparate for Fremantle. Fortunately things were also pretty desparate for Sydney, with just one win and a woeful percentage. Add in Freo's unbeaten record at the SCG and there was plenty of reason to be hopeful of a Fremantle win. Sydney welcomed the big man, Tony Lockett back, complete with his all new laser treated "Yeah, yeah" hair, which was certainly popular with the fans, but Freo also continued to creep closer to having a full list to choose from, with both McManus and Toia returning from knee reconstructions in this game.
As luck would have it, I was up in Sydney over the weekend for my girlfriend's uncle's (and aunt's) 50th wedding anniversary. It wasn't my fault that Freo also happened to be playing up there. Actually, at the time we made the arrangements, I didn't even realise that Freo would be in town that same week, but since they were, I figured I'd try to get there. With the offer of a free lunch, plus prolonged exposure to her relatives, I was able to persuade Caroline to come along. We wound up being the ideal modern AFL fans - a West Australian and a Victorian going to the SCG to eat sushi and watch Sydney play Fremantle. The old VFL has come a long way over the last 15 years or so.
While I'm at it, I'll get in my whinge about the SCG as a venue. First up, its too small. The official crowd was just over 25,000, but it looked pretty full to me. Secondly general admission tickets are more expensive than anywhere else I have been to the footy (but I haven't been to Football Park or Subiaco, both of which, I am lead to believe are horrendously over-priced). Thirdly, the tickets I was sold did not make it terribly clear where I could or couldn't sit. I am pretty sure that we wound up in reserved seating, but it was within the bays marked on the ticket as being available to me. Finally there was the sun. We spent the whole day looking into it, which just wouldn't happen down here in Victoria. What Sydney needs is some more old-fashioned dull, heavy cloud to keep the temperature down, and the sun out of your eyes. I think they need to take a long hard look at themselves.
Anyway, when the game finally started, it turned out to be a battle of the full-forwards. Sydney had Big Tone and we had Little Tone. Big Tone definitely started better, kicking the first three goals of the match, which certainly pleased the Sydney faithful. Fremantle struggled back into the game a little, and by quarter time it was Big Tone 4 goals to Freo 2. The 21 Dwarves were still yet to score.
Sydney's lack of a fit big man became pretty apparent in the second and third quarters, when Clem Michael's height and leap let him win the ball down fairly easily. This helped the Fremantle midfield get on top, which in turn stopped Big Tone from scoring. In the second quarter it all got to much for Big Tone, and he had a bit of a wrestle with Stephen O'Reilly, which resulted in O'Reilly's shirt getting pulled off. Pretty much the whole crowd was watching that until the reserve umpire came out and reported them both. O'Reilly put his shirt back on, and Little Tone slotted through a goal at the other end. By half time Freo had turned things around, and were a goal in front. I wasn't exactly confident of a win, but I was at least feeling a bit hopeful.
Things got even better at the start of the third quarter, with Little Tone scoring successive goals to give Freo a 3 goal lead. Things were getting very quiet at the SCG. Sydney hung in there though, and begun to win more of the ball. Towards the end of the quarter they kicked a few goals, and went in ahead at three-quarter time. The locals still weren't to happy with the way they were using the ball, but fortunately for them Freo were at least as bad.
Clement opened the final quarter with a goal, but after that it was pretty much all one-way traffic. I guess Freo had to fade out sooner or later. To be fair, they kept the pressure on Sydney for a while, but a few unanswered goals, followed by one from a 50m penalty that I didn't see pretty much shut the gate. A highlight from the last quarter was Big Tone picking up the ball at ground level and trying to run through about three Freo tacklers. He couldn't shake them off, but it took the umpire a long, long time to call holding the ball. The lowlight of the quarter came pretty much right on the siren when one of the Sydney midfield managed to clean up McManus (or possible Jess Sinclair, I got them confused all day). So we had scenes of jubilation all around the ground, while a young Freo player lay dazed and possibly unconcious in the middle. Didn't leave a nice taste in my mouth. Nor did the Sydney fans abusing a Dockers supporter on the walk home. He took it with good grace though - much better than I would have - which is why I had my scarf and beanie carefully hidden away by that stage.
Final Score : Sydney 15.10-100 defeated Fremantle 11.9-75
© 1999 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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