This was Fremantle's first visit to Friday night football this season. I'm pretty sure that our previous record in Friday games is pretty ordinary at best, but fortunately this time round Freo faced Essendon who have lost about 12 games in a row. That was the good news. The bad news was that Freo had lost 4 of the last 5 games going into this one, so they weren't exactly at the peak of their form either.

Fremantle kicked 7 goals in the first quarter, which I would think is pretty close to their best effort for the season. The highlight for Dermie came fairly early in the quarter, when Brother Matthew (Carr) kicked a goal, and then he and Josh had a discussion with Lovatt-Murray regarding the merits of the kick, that culminated in Lovatt-Murray whacking Borther Matthew across the jaw. He got reported, and a free kick was eventually paid for that, but Brother Matthew only managed a point. The cleanest route to goal for Fremantle seemed to be through Murphy, who kicked two goals for the quarter.

I also noticed Dustin Fletcher having a word with the umpires at quarter time. As he's not the Essendon captain at the moment, that should be a reportable offense these days shouldn't it? I'm sure it had no effect on anything, its just a silly rule.

Essendon were much more convincing in the second quarter. Fremantle had Medhurst and Brother Josh both off with calf strains, and there was some suggestion that Brother Matthew was concussed, but I suspect the concussion was just an excuse for Dermie to watch him getting whacked again. Fletcher seemed to have it all over Pavlich, and Fremantle's only goal for the quarter came from Byron Schammer. Essendon's dominance in the quarter didn't really convert on the scoreboard though. The kicked 2.6, including having Courtney Johns hit both goal posts (with separate kicks).

Fremantle dominated for the majority of the third quarter and got out to a lead of about 7 or 8 goals. Murphy got his fourth goal for the game, and Pav managed a couple as well. Then Essendon decided to make a come back, and scored the final three goals of the quarter. At 3/4 time Fremantle were still just over 4 goals up, but the number of scoring shots were pretty much level, so it was mostly Essendon's inability to convert their opportunities that was making the difference.

Freo were able to do enough in the last quarter though. Crowley also made it to 4 goals for the game, and Essendon's main focus in attack, Courtney Johns had to go off hurt. Essendon still didn't lie down, as Lucas stepped up and became much more handy. In the end they weren't able to close the gap though, and Freo finished up with their highest score for the season, and their biggest winning margin as well.

Final Score : Fremantle 19.11-125 beat Essendon 12.16-88

© 2006 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

Return to TimN's Home Page