There’s winning, there’s winning ugly and then there is just happy to get the four points. Fremantle were very happy to get the four points. They took them pretty easily too in what would generally be considered the sort of match where the losing coach is sacked...dragged out the back of the stadium and beaten with a sack of oranges. The Dockers won with 8 goals on the board and a grand tally of 64 points while the Lions could only manage 5 goals. And while low scoring, it wasn’t a brilliant tactical chess match of cunning defense and well timed attack. It was just a game where only 13 goals were kicked. An early guess would have thought 13 an optimistic target but the return of David Mundy gave Fremantle a mini-spark (that might be overstating things) and they pulled away in the second half (that might be overstating things too) for an easy victory.

 

 

It had been a quiet week in Fremantle. Not through choice though. Mark Harvey was back in town. There was quite a fuss last time he was in town (or getting driven out of town). He was back now, as an Assistant Coach for Brisbane...where coaches go to die...and there was plenty of interest in hearing what the old bloke had to say. Unfortunately the Fremantle suits had slapped a gag order on him, in case his version of events differed from the official version they'd spent the summer editing onto Wikipedia. So, the big story of the week became whether Jack Anthony would get the arse for David Mundy or not. As expected, he got the arse.

There was no gag order on the crowd but you could have easily been convinced there was. After the brilliant victory of Geelong then the debacle in Sydney, even hardened Fremantle supporters were confused about what was going to happen. When Brisbane kicked the opening goal in the opening minute there was a faint murmur but the Cauldron of Fear had become the Cone of Silence as both teams attempted to chip the ball around in their half of the ground with limited success. ...Read More