All the schedules promised me that I would get a live telecast of this game, but when I tuned in all I was being shown was the Davis Cup Tennis. As if anyone would actually care about international tennis! Australia lost anyway, so hopefully that will be a lesson to Seven.
I kept a vague ear out for score on the radio, and even before quarter time it was pretty clear that I wasn't missing much. At quarter time Adelaide led 7.3 to 1.2. In the second quarter Freo made a small fightback, kicking four goals in a row while Spider was in the ruck. Unfortunately then Spider came off, and Adelaide kicked away again. Neesham claimed later that Spider came off because he was buggered, but I doubt that less than a quarter of footy is enough to wear out even a soft Docker like Spider. To put it in context though, a number of the Dockers were apparently still suffering the after effects of the game in the heat against Melbourne last week. That heat didn't seem to have stopped Melbourne fronting up on the Friday night to beat North though, so it doesn't seem a real good excuse.
I gave up even listening for scores in the second half, but its fair to say that Fremantle didn't get any better, and Adelaide just powered away from them. The Dockers, in true Freo style, just rolled over and played dead, and the Crows players lined up to pile the goals on.
The one redeeming feature on the Fremantle scoreboard was that they actually managed to kick more goals than points. And the new recruit Fletcher apparently had a great game. Scotty Chisholm was apparently shocking from kick ins and gifted Adelaide with a few goals, but given the losing margin, that hardly makes a big difference.
The worst news, of course, is that on the strength of this result, Freo have tumbled from being third on the ladder to being thrid last. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Final Score : Adelaide 25.17-167 thrashed Fremantle 11.8-74
timnfromoz
© 1998 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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