By this stage, Fremantle had only won two games for the season, so there wasn't a lot of reason to be excited about there chances. But, weighed against that record was the fact that Freo's second win came last week, and that if you look at only the last 5 weeks, then both the Saints and the Dockers have won one and lost four. Add in the fact that St Kilda coach Ross Lyon had decided to drop Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne and was playing three first gamers, and there was enough reason for the bookies to install Freo as the favourites. It was even enough for me to change my tips in the work tipping contest and tip Freo.

I shouldn't have.

This is the first time I can remember Freo playing a Friday night game in Melbourne. I could be wrong on that, but it made for a slightly different footy going experience for me. It all went pretty smoothly, except for a bit of crowding on the platforms at Spencer St after the game. The train itself was fine, when it arrived, but the platform was pretty full for 10 or 15 minutes while we waited for it.

This was not an enjoyable game. Ross Lyon has been criticised for bringing too much of the Sydney game plan to St Kilda, and we all know that Sydney have been ruining football for years now. The game plan frustrates plenty of Saints fans, but let me tell you, its even more frustrating when you're the fan of an opposition team who can't find a way to break through the defensive wall.

Adding to my frustration was the fact that the umpiring of this game was absolutely diabolical. I can think of many examples to typify this, but here's a few relating to one rule. In the first quarter Pav threw Hudgton out of the way and marked. The umpire whistled and Pav gave the ball to Hudgton, except that no it was a free kick to Pav for ... something! In the second quarter, Goddard clearly pushed out his opponent, but was [aid a mark that ended up being a goal. In the third quarter, Warnock was trying to mark inside the goal square. Hudgton literally climed all over him (There is a fair old size difference after all.) and fisted teh ball away. Play on. Finally, in the last quarter, the ball spilled over the back of a pack to Bell who was on his way to open goal, but noooo it was a free kick to Hudgton because Pav touched his arm. That one was technically correct, but inconsistent with the other decisions, and it was not as the paper describes, "paid against Matthew Pavlich, who had crashed into Max Hudghton's back."

I do try to keep my whingeing about the umpiring to a minimum. No, really, I do. Unfortunately there was very little else to excite in this game, so I'll just mention deliberate out of bounds. Fremnatle had two very poor decisions on this rule go against them in the first quarter. The first was against Palmer, who was tackled and kicked quickly, and happened to find the line. That ended up as a goal to the Saints. It was unusual, but not quite unprecendented. The second one was unprecendented. Grover gathered the ball and was tackled/pushed over the line. That too was paid as deliberate out of bounds, and I have never seen that decision paid like that before.

OK, to the game itself. St Kilda dominated the first quarter. Not least of all because of the previously mentioned umpiring calls. Another minor factor might have been Lenny Hayes, who had 16 possessions for the quarter, before injuring his hamstring and sitting out the rest of the game. Fremantle were pretty poor for most of the quarter, but fortunately the Saints don't know how to kick goals, so it was a lot closer than it could have been at quarter time.

The other incident of the quarter was that Warnock came in late on Ball after he had taken a mark. It fired the players up. I was going to say that they came from all over the ground for a bit of push and shove, but this is modern footy, so in all honesty none of them had to come too far. Ball was very shaky when he got to his feet, but the replays suggest he may have hit his own head as he landed rather than being hit in the head by Warnock. Still Warnock was reported for it, so we shall see.

In the second quarter Fremantle found a way to score goals. For a while anyway. Pav started in the middle, but would then sneak forward. St Kilda had different opponents for him up front and in the middle, so he managed to get free. In between some truly woeful disposals, Fremantle managed to find him now and then, and by half time Freo had 5.2 and Pav had 4.1.

The third quarter started the way the second had ended. Pav kicked another goal, the JCarr kicked one, and for the first time Freo had got the lead. Fremantle, and especially Sandilands continued to dominate for most of the quarter, but couldn't score any more goals. Then the game turned again. St Kilda got a soft free kick, which ended up with a mark and goal to Goddard. Even worse, McPharlin was injured in the contest and didn't return to the field after that. Then from the next bounce it was free kick, mark, free kick to the Saints and another goal. And then just to put the icing on the cake, Michael Johnson took a mark on defensive 50, tried to play on, gave the ball to Robert Harvey, and the Saints got another one.

So at 3/4 time Fremnatle were 11 points down, but having played the better footy probably since Hayes wnet off the ground. Fremantle had most of the possession in the last quarter, but couldn't find the goals they needed. The Saints flooded back, of course, and Freo just couldn;t find the ways through. Murphy took a couple of good marks on or about teh 50, but couldn;t kick the goals.

The score line shows that Fremantle had more scoring shots, and lost through inaccuracy. There is a certain amount of irony in that, because the only thing that really kept Fremantle in the game for the first quarter and a bit was the fact that they kicked 5 goals straight from limited opportunities. And in the end, I thought plenty of their misses were gettable shots.

Final Score : St Kilda 10.5-65 defeated Fremantle 8.9-57

© 2008 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com

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