In the equivalent fixture last year, Freo were able to beat Collingwood by abotu 4 or 5 goals, so this game gave a good indication of how two of the less experienced teams in the league have progressed over the past twelve months or so. I didn't see the game last year, but the results certainly indicate that the Pies are making better progress than the Dockers.

Despite the fact that it was a relatively mild Saturday night, the official attendance at Colonial was only 26,000 or so. They could have fitted that many into Victoria Park, and saved plenty on the running costs. Actually, if the game had been at Victoria Park I reckon they would have had a few more of the Collingwood faithful show up, but anyway.

I went along with my brother, my father and a few of my brother's Collingwood-supporting friends. I always feel safer going to Collingwood games with Collingwood fans, as the other supporters usually assume that your mates will sort you out, and yoru mates usually don't. Of course, it helps if you keep quiet as well, but thats not always possible. We arrived a little late, having assumed that the game started at 7:40, like the Port-Essendon game the night before had. However the Pies were opting for the more "family-friendly" time of 7pm, so we were still climbing up to Level 4 when the Pies kicked the first goal of the game. We ended up seated way up near the rafters, but even so we were able to get a reasonable view of the ground.

The game can probably be summarised by saying that the Pies got away at the start of each quarter, and then the Dockers struggled to reel the back in. A positive for the Dockers came from the fact that they generally did manage to pull them back, and that they never ended up more than 5 goals behind the Pies. On the other hand, they never got in front of them either. The best they managed was to draw level just on quarter time.

The story of the Collingwood win is all about one man - Buckley. Collingwood had him, Freo didn't, so Freo lost. Buckley had something like 50 posessions, and unlike most of the other players on both sides, he actually seemed to give the ball to a team mate more often than not. Freo, on the other hand, despite their claims that they have a great midfield unit, had not one player with more than 25 possessions. Freo started with Parker tagging Buckley, and he seemed to do an OK job. Actually, it looked like Cook was minding him at the centre bounces, and then Parker was rushing over to him for the rest of the play. I would have thought that it would have worked better to have one player with him all the time, but I don't know.

Anyway, Collingwood got right away at the start of the second quarter, so Drum moved Parker onto Josh Fraser and Carr onto Buckley. I'm not quite clear what the point of that move was really, since I didn't feel that Fraser was playing that well, and Buckley wasn't being held, but wasn't really carving Freo up either. Fraser ended up with 4 goals, so I don't know that you could claim that Shane had a great night. I guess a possible explanation was that Drum wanted to free up Bandy, who had been marking Fraser at CHF, but Longmuir was doing pretty well in the ruck, so Bandy ended up off the ground for about a half of footy.

Some more amusement came from the fans around me, who were extremely unimpressed to see Fraser stuck at CHF instead of in the ruck, and who were extremely unimpressed with Licuria. Licuria and Fraser both rated in the top three or four players in most of the media, but I could certainly see the fans' point - yes Licuria got a lot of the ball, but more often than not it ended up with Freo, and yes Fraser looked good at CHF, but he would almost certainly have slaughtered Longmuir if he'd been in the ruck.

Neither team really played well. Some Collingwood fans have suggested that Collingwood did just enough to win in a canter and that therefore Freo are very, very bad. I'd say that both teams are very, very bad, and it really was no effort at all for Collingwood to bring themselves down to Freo's level.

The umpiring was overall not too bad, although there were a couple of extremely mystifying decisions. In the second quarter, Modra went for a big fly over a pack, didn't take the mark, and had a free kick paid against him. A paranoid fan would suggest that the umpires just don't want him to succeed, since it seems that this season he is allowed to be hung onto when leading, and when he comes from behind he's not allowed to jump. A cynic would suggest that its always easier to pay a free kick against the full forward rather than to him, since that won't affect the game as much. The other baffling decision was what looked like a mark to Brown in the last quarter. He held his ground well despite being crunched (fairly, I'd say) between two opponents and controlled the ball all the way to the ground. The umpire called it play on though, and Collingwood got a goal from it.

Just a few comments on Freo's best and worst before I finish. Pavlich ended up with 5 goals, so its hard to go past him, and he did look very good. My only fault would be that as a centre half forward he needs to come further down the ground some times, so that he can be the link between the running defense and Modra. The Age also lists Bell as one of Freo's best, but as the comments above suggest, they were probably at a different game to the rest of us. Bell was serviceable, but he really did n't have much impact. Longmuir played above himself, but didn't really dominate. The taps he did win seemed to end up mostly as Collingwood possessions anyway. Dion Woods came on in the second half and looked very stylish. I don't know how well he'd do on a mud heap, but I reckon he'll be very handy in Perth. Schell also took a few good marks and looked handy up forward before he faded out of the game (or maybe was benched?)

Now for the down side. McManus was worse than useless. He failed to take clean possession on a couple of occasions when he was in the clear, and his disposals cost Freo goals as often as they created them. He seemed almost incapable of minding a man, which is possible not supposed to be his main role, but its a part of the game, and if he can't do it, he needs to learn how. Hasleby was kept very quiet, but he seemed to play most of the game on a half-forward flank, so he can't take all of the blame for that. He's an in-and-under player, with no style, no grace, but plenty of footy nous and great hands when he gets them on the footy. Playing him anywhere outside the centre square for too long just sets him up for poor games like he had here. Brown looked OK, but lost his man a few too many times.

Final Score : Collingwood 15.15-105 defeated Fremantle 13.10-88.

© 2001 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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