When they arrived at the bus station in Melbourne, Fremantle would have been puzzled by the old, bearded bloke loading an assortment of timber and two of every kind of animal into the back of their bus. But when they arrived in Geelong (after chartering a new bus) and saw the pelting rain it all would have made sense. As it turned out, the old beardy was just the insane owner of the local pet food cannery but it was still pretty wet.
When the Dockers finally ran out onto Kardinia Park, a chill would have gone down each of their spines. The rain was coming down in bucket loads, the temperature was plummeting and the wind was tearing across the ground like a bogan with a video recorder under his arm. It was old school, cold, wet, muddy, hope Mum's got he hot Milo ready when I get home, Melbourne winter footy conditions.
Despite being along way from home, in hostile conditions, Fremantle came with a plan. They managed to remember a long sleeve jumper for both the Longmuir brothers, they started Jeff Farmer in the middle, because everyone knows small forwards play better when they're muddy, and they brought beanies for the players to wear on the bench. Geelong won the toss and, not surprising, decided to kick with the monsoon. They got the ball out of the centre from a soft free kick and that's when Fremantle's introduced part four of their plan. They turned the Geelong forward line into the Lost City of Atlantis. The completely flooded it, leaving just Paul Medhurst to cover the other two thirds of the ground.
As you'd expect the result was a lot of packs, plenty of rolling around in the mud and not much scoring for Geelong. The Cats opened their account with a behind to Gary Ablett's kid, leaving Scott Thornton with the task of kicking the ball back in, into the monsoon. Like bringing beanies to keep warm, Freo adopted a simple plan. Everyone went to one spot, Scotty kicked it there and hoped someone would take a mark. No one took a mark but the Cats didn't get much out of it either. The pack formed, a few blokes tried to handpass off their knees and eventually Geelong rolled through another point.
The process repeated for most of the quarter. For poor Scotty Thornton it was like trying to push an elephant up a flight of the stairs. The plan seemed to be working though. Geelong weren't scoring and the local crowd were cold, wet, bored and quiet. Fremantle didn't get their first kick inside fifty until halfway through the quarter but no one was home. It was a mistake they didn't make the second time inside fifty though and when Polak let one fly from the centre, Farmer and Medhurst were ready to pounce. The ball spilled in front of Farmer, he tapped it on to Medhurst as he was molested by Hunt. Medhurst swung his boot onto it and the ball sailed through for a goal. But as Medhurst celebrated, the umpire called the ball back. He'd decided to award Farmer a free kick instead of letting the goal stand. Jeff made a god go of it but the heavy ball was touched on the line, leaving Fremantle gypped of 5 points.
A big kick back into play and pretty soon the ball was back in the old familiar right back pocket where Scott Thornton was soon reunited with his elephant. The Freo defenders fought on bravely, sticking to the game plan and keeping their heads above water. As the clock ticked away and Chris Connolly started to make his way to the mud hole, someone dropped their guard. Just as the siren sounded, Joel Corey threw the ball on his boot and snuck through a goal. It gave the Cats a handy break and put a bit of a spring in their steps but the Dockers had done alright, conceding a 14 points to the Cats at the first break.
With the monsoon blowing in their favour in the second quarter, Fremantle's game plan changed a bit. The new plan was to kick it long and let the wily forwards produce something special. Strangely enough, it was the first part they were having trouble with. The midfielders couldn't get a clean kick into the forward line so eventually one of the forwards had to g o out and do it himself. Paul Medhurst drew the short straw. He collected the ball on the half forward line, sold a couple of dummies, then sent the ball high and long to the goal square. Jeff Farmer's eyes didn't leave the footy and he managed to avoid the two Geelong players trying to cop a feel and bring down the mark before kicking the Dockers first goal.
With the midfielders still bludging in the centre, Paul Medhurst was sent up the ground once again. This time when he got the ball he didn't bother with The Wiz. He sold his quota of dummies, made the angle more difficult and dropped it on his boot for a goal. As Medhurst went in search of high fives, a nervous murmur started to creep through the Geelong supporters.
Back in the centre, nothing was happening again. This time Troy Simmonds drew the short straw and had to go up the ground. He bombed one long from the centre which carried to the top of the goal square. No one could take the mark but Medhurst was onto the crumbs pretty quick. As the ball was just about to roll over the boundary line, he remembered something he'd seen an albino bald man do in similar weather. He soccered it across his body and curved it through for a goal. Well Farmer and Medhurst were celebrating a goal . The goal umpire had pulled out his microscope and noticed that there was still an atom of the football touching the goal line, so he let Sanderson pick up the ball and run off with it without registering a score.
With all the Fremantle players trying to hide in case Troy Longmuir came over for a mistaken celebratory hug, the Cats were able to move the ball down the ground with a fair bit of ease. A very suspicious free against Shane Parker saw them get the ball deep into attack and when Grover opted not to rush a behind before falling over in the mud and making a mess of things, McCarthy got a goal against the flow of play.
It may have been against the flow of play but if obviously scared the Dockers a bit. They went back into their shells and stopped sending forwards to do the midfielders job for them. Thankfully the defense was strong and eventually the forwards got their act together and sent Medhurst back into the centre to get the ball for them. Like a dog with a new tennis ball, he chased the footy from one side of the ground to the other and then back again. Eventually he got hold of it and booted it long into the forward line. Now with the forwards doing all the work in the middle, Peter Bell decided he wasn't needed anymore and drifted down the ground. The ball rolled in his direction, he picked it up, snapped a goal and got a hug from Troy Longmuir.
Two points separated the teams and Fremantle still had a couple of minutes worth of wind left. But the Cats copied Fremantle's plan of bottling it up in the pocket and scoring was proving difficult. Once again, as Chris Connolly made his way to the mud hole to address his players, someone dropped their guard. Geelong got the ball forward but once again a Docker opted against rushing the behind. This time Polak tried to keep the ball alive but buggered it up. Tenance swooped on his mistake and kicked a goal with seconds left on the clock sending Freo into the long rest 8 points down.
It's a sign of just how good things are going off the field at Fremantle with the players emerging from the half time break a fresh set of clothes and most of them in long sleeve jumpers. It's not that long ago that they used to have one long sleeve jumper at the club with velcro on the back to change the number. It was also a sign of just how cold things were getting with the local weather watches poised to rewrite their record books.
So when the footy got going, they looked sharp in more ways than one. They got the ball out of the middle easily and had a couple of pings on goals for little return. We were in for a more attacking Dockers this quarter. But when the Cats got the ball into their attacking half, it proved tricky getting it out again. A problem not helped by the fact that the last of the grass had floated into the drainage ditch during the half time break.
The Dockers went back to Plan A and tried to hold of the Cats while they were kicking with the monsoon but the skinny legs of Scott Thornton were starting to tire from the heavy ground and he could no longer provide the impenetrable wall of defense he had been in the first quarter. The players around him were looking a bit leg weary as well and Fremantle were happy to go from pack to pack, bottling up the ball and resting while the umpire did his pre-bounce dance. Geelong on the other hand had been given a rev up from their coach and threatened if they didn't do some attacking with the wind this time around.
Fremantle became like a Dutch boy behind a leaky wall. Cracks were appearing in the defense and Geelong started to get a bit of the footy. Much to the delight of the city of Geelong, Steven Johnson kicked a couple of goals and Peter Riccardi soccered one through to get the Cats out to a quick 27 point lead. Fremantle were fast running out of fingers. As they began to pray for the three quarter time siren, Geelong refused to run out the clock. Graham and Riccardi dobbed a couple more and the Dockers were sunk.
With 41 points to kick in a bog heap, the Dockers needed NASA to calculate their odds of winning. But as the clock ran down in the last quarter without a goal being kicked, it became easier and easier. They had no chance. Fremantle fought it out nevertheless but couldn't manage a goal, losing by 50 points and a facing a long, cold trip home to mum's hot milo.
