Coming off a thrashing last week, and facing a team they have never managed to beat, it was always going to be tough for Freo to pull out a win in this game. On the other hand, the image the Fremantle likes to project, of being a tough, hard-working team, battling the odds and doing it tough is perfectly suited to a situation just like that. Fremantle lost Waterhouse through injury, dropped Hunter before the game, and Mann was back, so their forward line was looking considerably weakened.
I missed the first quarter, and when I tuned in, things were looking almost as grim as I had expected them to be, with the Eagles leading Freo by 26 points. I almost turned the TV off there and then, but fortunately I stayed tuned for the now traditional Freo 2nd quarter revival. Once again, Spider's work in the ruck was the catalyst for teh turn around. Clement lead the charge up front, kicking two goals from outside the 50 during the quarter. Freo actually hit the lead towards the end of the quarter, but then Gehrig escaped from Shane, and scored his second to put the Eagles in front at half time.
For most of the third quarter Freo were competitive, but they seemed to lack avenues to goal, just as they had done in the first. Mann didn't have what it takes to play at full-forward, and Daniel Parker's efforts at half-forward were about all that could be expected from him.
In the final quarter, Fremantle just failed to do enough to ever look like winning. Apparently the breeze swung around during the third quarter, so that the Eagles ended up getting the better of it for three quarters, but to be honest it didn't look like it had had that much of an impact all day. Much as it pains me to say it, at the end of the day, the Eagles were just too good, and actually deserved to win. Probably not by as much as they did, though.
Shane had a moderately good game on Gehrig, but Gehrig is in such great form at the moment that he still managed to score 5, and set up a couple more, including one with a magnificent cross to Waterman at the far post, who made no mistake in putting it into the top corner of the net. Of course Parker did give away a couple of goals to Gehrig, but thats the joys of being a Parker fan.
Final Score : Fremantle 10.7-67 lost to West Coast 14.10-94
timnfromoz
© 1998 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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