It was quickly evident that North Melbourne were disinterested rabble and Fremantle's chances of winning were entirely reliant on whether or not they wanted to retain the legal ability to trade under the definition of a football club. The good news was that Fremantle very much wanted that and they set about taking a handy three goal lead in scintillating fashion. Unfortunately urgency isn't something Fremantle often concern themselves with, so the lead didn't move much further than that for the rest of the day. North Melbourne had the occasional moment of good fortune mixed with good play to creep closer but for the most part, Fremantle kept the game just out of their reach. That was, of course, until the last quarter when they lulled themselves to sleep and let the Roos take a narrow lead. Some handy work by Shane Kersten leveled the scores again and Ryan Nyhuis gave Freo the lead in the dying minutes but the Dockers weren't done lacking in conviction just yet. Sean Darcy gave away a free kick to Todd Goldstein 30 metres out from goals but luckily Goldstein is a crab and sprayed the kick. The siren sounded and Fremantle were just happy to take home the 4 points.