Its not often that I get to see Fremantle win in Melbourne, and its not often that I get to see Fremantle win by over 80 points. And I don't think I have ever seen Fremantle win by over 80 points in Melbourne before, so this was a good game for me.

This game was played on Mother's Day, so I had lunch with Caroline's parents before the game. That meant that I didn't get to the ground until part way through the second quarter, but I don't think I missed all that much. Caroline gave me a lift to Docklands, and dropped me off in LaTrobe St, which is my preferred entry to the ground. Unfortunately, all the ticket windows at that end of the ground had already closed up, so I had to walk round to the other end of the ground to get in. When I did get to buy a ticket, I got offered a seat on Level 2, for no extra price, which I took. This turned out to give me a seat right behind the goals, which is not my preferred location for viewing a game, but it was interesting none the less.

On the way to the ground I had heard that the Dockers were leading by three goals to one in the first quarter. The Doggies made a bit of a fight back at the start of the second, and actually got within a couple of points at one stage. But then Rohan Smith got carried off the ground after injuring his knee, and Fremantle took charge again. I found my seat part way through the Dockers' charge, which ended up being seven unanswered goals to end the quarter.

The third quarter was more of the same. The Doggies had a bit of a rally, but the Dockers still out-scored them. Daniel Bandy managed to injure his ankle during a marking contest, so the Doggies were forced to play an even shorter line up. To be fair, I hadn't even realised that Bandy was playing in the game prior to that, so I don't know that it made that much difference, but it didn't help the Doggies.

The Doggies lack of height probably explained why, at one stage in the third quarter Freo had Longmuir, Waterhouse, Pavlich and Simmonds all in the forward 50, with Croad and Sandilands wandering around further up the field. To be honest, I am still not convinced that Freo have their forward line completely worked out yet. There are just too many guys wanting to take a mark. I particularly found it ammusing when there were a couple of occasions where Medhurst made a lead and created a marking contest, and Justin Longmuir roved the pack. Thats not the way its supposed to work, I wouldn't have thought.

The highlight of the third quarter was a double 50m penalty paid against Luke Darcy. That almost made up for the free kick and 50m penalty that was paid against Medhurst not long before them. In both cases, the free kick was probably not there, and the 50m penalty was paid when the player argued the case with the umpire. The second 50 was paid against Darcy because he didn't give the ball back while he was arguing the case. The second 50 didn't really make much difference, since the first 50 had taken Sandilands within 20m of the goals anyway.

Sometime during the third quarter Des Headland limped off with an ankle injury. He came out and played a part of the last quarter, but didn't look fully fit, and went off again. Presumably his injury wasn't too bad

Unlike last week Fremantle managed to play out the game, out-scoring the Doggies by 6 goals to 3 in the last quarter. The game was really alreday in the bag, and the only real question was whether or not Freo could manage a 100 point win. To their credit, the Doggies fought it out well enough to prevent that happening, but the whole quarter was pretty uninspiring, I thought.

At the end of the game the one advantage of having a seat behind the goals and behind the Fremantle cheersquad was demonstrated, when the players came over to thank the supporters. In previous games where this has happened, I have been seated well away from the cheersquad, so I haven't had the feeling of personal involvement that I did get when that happened at the end of this game. I suspect that this is also where the Docklands Stadium really comes into its own, as we really were nice and close to the players. I also got the feeling that some, not all, but certainly some, of the players were genuinely appreciative of having had the fans there.

The percentage boost from this win was enough to push Fremantle into the top eight, and for the first time ever all six non-Victorian clubs held positions in the top eight. Fremantle finished up seventh, just behind Port Adelaide and Sydney. In fact, if Freo had just kicked one more goal, they would have finished the week in fifth spot. Of course, being inside the eight at this stage in the season is really not that important, but its still better being in there than not being in there.

In their post match analysis, the ABC radio commentators made a big deal about how impressed they were with the running of the Fremantle midfield. They were specifically impressed with the willingness of the Dockers to leave their opponents and run hard to create a lead for their team mates. Now I agree that that is a virtue when Fremantle are running away with a game, but I strongly suspect that it will lead to a couple of thrashings before the year is out.

Final Score : Footscray 10.12-72 were thrashed by Fremantle 23.17-155.

© 2003 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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