Another year, another trip to Launceston to play in the hail. OK, so it didn't actually hail this time round, but it did rain for a fair portion of the game, and given that its only the second week of the season, I don't think either team was particularly well prepared to play wet weather footy. FRemantle did make a concession to the conditions though, and Aaron Sandilands didn't play.
Freo won the toss, and kicked with what was reportedly a four goal breeze in the first quarter. The Saints played tight defensive footy, and the Dockers struggled to find a way to get into their forward line. St Kilda weren't looking at all threatening either, and Longmuir, J. played a kick behind the play and was the leading possession getter for the quarter. Nevertheless, when Hasleby hit the post from about 30m out, Freo were 0.3 to zip with most of the quarter gone, and things weren't looking too good.
Things should have been even worse when Koschitzke kicked the first goal of the game, just as the rain started to pelt down. But fortunately for the Dockers the breeze had turned around when the rain came, and so the Dockers were now kicking INTO the breeze rather than with it. Even better was that Peter Bell took a good overhead mark and kicked a goal, so that Freo were still 3 points up at quarter time.
In fact, I think Freo held the lead from that Bell goal for almost all of the remainder of the game. The unfortunate part of that sentence is the word "almost." But I am getting ahead of myself.
The secodn quarter started with Fraser Gehrig having a couple of shots for goal, and missing them both. Eventually Freo worked it down to the other end, where the ball eventually went out on the full. From the kick in, Medhurst pushed his opponenet under the ball, gathered and kicked a goal. Even better was to follow, because Hudgeton congratulated him by pushing him in the chest, and the umpire gave him a second shot and he scored a second goal.
Unsurprisingly when Jeffrey and Medhurst are together in the forwward line, there was a bit of ill-feeling happening, and later in the quarter the umpires paid a relayed free down the ground against Carr, J. for putting a headlock on one of the St Kilda players who was doing his best to kill Jeffrey. The result of that was a goal to Hamill. I sure that Josh was just explaining to the St Kilda boys how the spear tackle had happened last week.
Freo took a five point lead in at half time, but there was still more fuin and games to come. The "stadium" in Launceston still has both teams' rooms right next to each other, so as the players went off at half time, they were side by side. Unsurprisingly, this led to a melee, where Fraser Gehrig tried to check with Josh Carr that he had understood the spear tackled correctly. Sadly he hadn't, so he only managed to get Carr around the neck. There was then some broader discussion on the relative effectiveness of a headlock as opposed to a spear tackle, before the players departed.
There was one goal scored each team during the third quarter. The only real highlight of the quarter was that Medhurst earnt a free kick for chasing down an opponent and tackling him. I'm pretty sure that that has to be a first.
The story of the last quarter is that Freo got out to a 15 point lead, only to see that whittled down slowly until the scores were level with 4 minutes to go. There was a whole passage of about 10 minutes where Fremantle really struggled to attack, and the defense did their best to soak up the pressure while the lead disappeared. The end of the scoreing came after Hamill had a set shot that failed to register a score. Freo were working the ball back in when Matthew Carr hung onto the ball a bit too long. Hamill tackled him, and as he was spun around, Carr dropped the ball, then gathered it again and moved off. After a bit of thought the umpire paid a free against him and Hamill scored a point.
Freo were then finally able to work the ball forward, into a faily open forward line. Medhurst gathered, with his opponent right on him, turned and kicked the ball to the top of the square, where the ball was fisted away from Pav. The catch was that Headland was 20m in the clear in the centre. How you interpret that depends on what you think of Medders. If you are a fan, then he (a) didn't see Headland and (b) was putting the ball to the top of the square where it should be directed at a time like that. If you're not a fan, then he was going for the goal and the glory and it was just unfortunate that Pav and his man got in the way. Personally I think he did see Headland, and saw Pav, and rightly or wrongly, thought Pav was the better option.
Unusually for a game that Freo lost by not much, I don't have a particular beef against the umpires with this game. The free kick that went against Josh Carr after the wrestle in the middle was pretty soft, but then so was Medhurst's free kick for his second goal. McManus got pulled up for holding the ball without really having a chance to dispose of it, but he was just a victim of the new interpretation of holding the ball that is being used this season, as far as I can make it out. The umpires have been fairly consistent on that one, at least. My only possible complaint is with the free kick that let Hamill score the winning point. Yes, Matthew Carr dropped the ball, but lots of players do when they get tackled, and its very, very rare for it to be called as a free kick. Even there, it would have been even better if Matthew Carr had managed to not get tackled.
My only other comment is that this gaem was the first time I have seen the new line up with Pav playing at CHF. It seemed to work pretty well to me. Almost all of the first half goals came through attacks that went via Pav. The catch was that Pav was usually contesting well outside 50, so even when he won the ball, there needed to be someone else that he could direct the ball onto. Occasionally that worked, but more often there just wasn't anyone free.
Final Score : Fremantle 8.10-58 lost to St Kilda 8.11-59
� 2005 timnfromoz timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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