Despite the coach getting the chop at the end of 2011 for a poor finish to the season, Round 17 saw Fremantle hit a 3 game winning streak with the rugby states team trifecta. Brisbane and the Gold Coast had been easy pickings but the Swans were in some form and climbing their way up the ladder after a slow start. 

 

It was a typical scrappy Sydney game of football with the two teams going goal for goal - until half time. In the third quarter, the Dockers decided to release the handbrake and show the locals how the game is played down Fremantle way. 6 goals in a row, each more exciting than the last, took Freo out to a 38 point lead by three quarter time. Obviously a match winning lead, Fremantle rested a few blokes and put their focus onto the next week's game as the Swans ran themselves silly, thinking that getting within 6 points was their own doing. Nick Lower steadied with a minute to go to wrap up the game so Freo could win by a comfortable 11 points. 

 

Nat Fyfe had a staggering about of the football, as did Greg Broughton while Jarrard McVeigh cobbled together 24 cheap stats for Sydney. Hayden Ballantyne kicked 3 of Fremantle’s 15 goals, Chris Mayne kicked another 3 of them and Lewis Roberts-Thomson kicked almost as many goals as he has first names.

 

The Clinton Wolf Medal votes went to Nat Fyfe, Greg Broughton and controversially Stephen Hill while,  unsurprisingly,  the umpires found room for two Sydney players with Fyfe, McVeight and Roberts-Thompson picking up the Brownlow votes. 

 

In Mark Harvey’s quest for dominance over the SCG, he dropped the ball a bit back and home and when Fremantle played Sydney at Subiaco Oval a year earlier, the Swans had a win over an injury depleted Dockers. 

 

All credit to Sydney, they accepted their new place in the world with good grace and, rather than employ a futile effort to win back the SCG they decided they would just focus on winning elsewhere. It was unfortunate then that the AFL had slipped up and accidentally sent Sydney to Western Australia to play Fremantle - for just the second time in 7 years.  Byron Schammer’s recall to the side suggested Fremantle were going to have a long afternoon. At half strength, kicking against the flow of umpiring for most of the match and with a ruck department cobbled together from a skinny kid and what appeared to be one of Marvin the Martian's goons, Fremantle nearly pulled off an impossible victory. The Swans did their best to try and bog the game down in their rugby hybrid style of football but Fremantle overcame their flooding, numerous times, in a game that saw the lead change more often than Lady GaGa's Cocker Spaniel. A brilliant snap from Byron Schammer and a miraculous goal by Nic Suban from the pocket saw Fremantle back in the lead late in the last quarter but they were done in when they tried milking the clock too early, losing by 9 points. Greg Broughton had the most footy for Freo with 24 touches, Daniel Hannebery had 38 showy possessions for the Swans. Ben McGlynn kicked three of Sydney’s goal while a relatively unknown bloke named Hasel something kicked a couple for Fremantle. Broughton, Matt de Boer and Kepler Bradley were awarded the Clinton Wolf Medal Votes in controversial circumstances.

 

The reason for Sydney’s assault on Subiaco Oval came about from what happened earlier that year, in Round 9 2010.  It wasn’t just that Fremantle had won at the SCG for the first time since the mid-90’s, it was the complete humiliation of the Swans in front of their home supporters - all 8 of them. Despite half of Fremantle's defence missing the game with injuries or drug related mishaps, the Dockers looked like a side at full strength without a care in the world, dancing the ball out of the centre and making the goal umpire earn his pay with a combination of spectacular goals and almost brilliant points. The rain started pouring down in the last quarter to give the Swans some respite, Fremantle winning 9.9 (63) to 14.16 (100). David Mundy dominated with the ball, collecting 25 possessions while Nick Malceski picked up 28, mostly cheap, possessions for the Swans. The goals were shared around a bit, with Matthew Pavlich kicked 3 and Henry Playfair kicking 2. Controversy surrounded  the Clinton Wolf Medal votes after Paul Hasleby was given the 3, Nat Fyfe the 2 and Antoni Grover the 1.

 

Fremantle have been to Sydney 11 times in the past 15 matches with one match at the Telstra Stadium and 10 at the SCG.  They’ve won 2 of those games. The last two. There have been a few stuff ups with the fixtures that forced Sydney to head west, however, giving Fremantle the upper hand at 3 wins from the past 5 matches. 

 

Sydney had last week off but the week before that they were given a free kick, playing Greater Western Sydney to start the Giants their existence in the AFL. It was a bit of a bloodbath with the Swans winning by 10 goals. Kieran Jack and Josh Kennedy got plenty of the football and the goals were shared around between a dozen or so. They are currently on top of the ladder. 

 

Fremantle had a more substantial win last week, over reigning premiers Geelong, in what most consider the most important win of the opening round. The win has Fremantle in 8th spot on the ladder.