It's not often that a Fremantle vs Adelaide gets televised, but this one was. Dennis was even able to talk the game up a bit, as being between the top team in the league (Adelaide) and the form team (Freo - having won their last 5 straight).

Fremantle started the game pretty well, with Pavlich in the centrebut Adelaide scored the first goal. Freo kicked the next couple though, and were 9 points up at quarter time. They had been kicking with the breeze though, so they perhaps needed to be further ahead. The impressive thing for me from the first quarter was Fremantle's tackling. Their last two goals both came as a result of holding the ball decisions against Adelaide defenders - the first of the two against Rutten by Schammer and the second a tackle on Johncock by Farmer.

The second quarter started with a bit of an arm-wrestle. Adelaide caught up and even took the lead, and then the lead swapped a few times, before Fremantle finished the quarter with the last three goals. These gave me a bit of a sense of excitement, and confidence going into half time. McGregor went off for Adelaide sometime during the quarter, apparently with a hammy, but he had been pretty quiet anyway, and I think the Adelaide forward line actually worked better without him.

The third quarter was definitely dominated by Adelaide. They kicked 5.4 to Freo's 2.1 for the quarter. The run of the umpiring seemed to go with them as well, to the point that even Dermie and Dennis were prepared to comment on it.

By three-quarter time, Fremantle were 3 points down, and Adelaide seemed to have all the momentum. To my surprise, though, Fremantle came out after the break, and scored the first three goals of the quarter. Jeff Farmer set up the first two of these. The third one was slightly controversial, as it came after Brother Matthew took a mark on the goal line, played on and goaled. The replays showed that the ball had actually hit the goal post before Carr was able to mark it. That was it as far as goals went for the quarter. Fremantle slowed their pace a lot, a little too early in my opinion. The Crows were able to launch a few attacks, but fortunately they all ended up as points.

Final Score : Fremantle 13.17-95 beat Adelaide 10.20-80

© 2006 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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