Carlton hadn't exactly been setting the world on fire this season, but they were above Fremantle on the ladder going into this game and the game was being played in Melbourne. Despite that, Fremantle were picked as the favourite.

I went along with my parents, and they were hopeful of seeing a Fremantle victory. After the loss to Melbourne, anything was possible with Freo, so I was a lot less confident.

It made little or no difference to the final result, but the umpiring in this game was particularly interesting. It was pretty clear that it was impossible for Fremantle to tackle Judd, but in fairness the Barry Hall rule - which states that a tackle against Barry only counts if you remove his head and even then you'll be pinged for a high tackle - was applied to Pavlich. At the other end of the spectrum, Farmer got absolutely no love at all from the umpires, despite a whole range of infringements against him. The highlight was one passage late in the game, when Farmer was running towards an open goal, and was about to be tackled. He Handballed the ball in front of himself, was tackled, and pinged for holding the ball.

Final Score : Carlton 14.13-97 defeated Fremantle 14.4-88

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