Never before have so many Fremantle supporters been so happy to not get to see their footy team play next week. The Dockers are through to the second last week in September, earning a week off and a home Preliminary final after knocked over the Cats on their own crap heap.
After a month of sweeping up leper clubs, Fremantle took a little while to adjust to the tempo of finals football (and Geelong umpiring) and went into the first break with some work to do. And work they did. Michael Barlow went football crazy, running rampant and embarrassing the previously highly regarded Geelong team. With a run of 5 unanswered goals, the Dockers took the lead and the locals turned feral. Well, fereler. Thankfully for the safety of the Fremantle people who’d made the trip east, Geelong regrouped and managed to make a bit of a contest of it for a while but the Dockers crushed them in the last term, seeing the Geelong goal factory go the way of all of Geelong’s other factories - shut down. Chris Mayne and Stephen Hill kicked a couple of sealers in the last and Fremantle left, under police escort, 15 points the better team.