It had been over 2 months since I had last been able to see a Fremantle game. It's probably fair enough that Freo not play a game in Melbourne during that length of time, but it's a disappointment to me that I seem to be shown very few games on TV as well.

Having had that whinge, I didn't actually get to this game. It was cold, and I had no confidence in Freo, but my main excuse was that I had already agreed to go out elsewhere before I had realised that the game would clash with that function. Fortunately, the game was telecast on the Channel 7 1 hour delay, so I was able to video the game and watch it back before I knew the result.

Adding to my lack of confidence in Freo was the fact that Richmond needed to win to keep their hopes of making the final 8 alive. Fremantle didn't, as their hopes of making the 8 had long since died. The other bad news was that Pav was not playing.

Despite all my worries, Freo made a good start. Headland got a soft 50 metre penalty and kicked the first goal of the game, but Fremantle were able to follow up with a couple more well-earned goals. Fremantle got out to a good lead, but then Bradley took over in the centre, and the Tigers got back into it.

For most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters Fremantle looked to be the better team, but Richmond were able to stick with them. They were helped out a bit by the umpiring, but overall, I didn't get too worked up about any of the umpiring decisions.

As usual for this season, Fremantle led at 3/4 time, and as usual, they ended up losing. There was a sense of inevitability about it really. Richo scored his first goal to give Richmond the lead, and not long after that scored his second to put them 13 points up. The lead eventually got out to more than 3 goals. The Fremantle West Essendon brigade (Bradley and Ma Johnson) scored goals to pull the lead back, but to me it never really looked like they would be able to bridge the gap.

There were a few overall highlights of the game for me. One was the discovery that Mark Johnson actually had something to contribute. Admittedly waiting for his second last game ever might be leaving his run a little late, but still. I finally saw what the hype was about with Hayden, especially in the third quarter when he just controlled the back line. And McPharlin held Richo all game, though he did play up forward all through, which has been unusual for this season.

One of the talking points of this game was that Michael Voss was asked to give an opinion about who should win the Rising Star award for this year. He went for Cyril Rioli ahead of Rhys Palmer, because a forward pocket is apparently a harder position to play. I haven't seen enough of Rioli to judge how good he is compared to Palmer - for that matter I probably haven't seen enough of Palmer either - but claiming that a forward pocket is harder than winning the ball out of the centre is ridiculous.

Final Score : Richmond 15.15-105 defeated Fremantle 15.8-98

© 2008 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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