Concerned with the unwanted publicity his team has been getting, Ross Lyon has taken a leaf out of his predecessors book and pulled his side up in Tasmania against the easily sucked in Hawks. After a regulation slow start to the game, Fremantle successfully lowered expectations in the second quarter by letting the Hawks run themselves silly and get out to a 10 goal lead just before half time. Lyon let his players stretch their legs a bit in the third term to make sure they kept their form up before phoning in the last quarter and losing by a healthy 56 point maring and escaping with a fully fit side, ready to attack the rest of the season away from the pressures of the spotlight.
It's not often you envy the Tasmanians. With Fremantle stacking their defense with their most competent players and Zac Dawson, and putting the leftovers down in the forward line, the game in Launceston opened up as a battle of the rebounding defenders. For mainlanders that would mean a lot of neck strain, watching the ball go from one end of the ground to another and then back again, but two heads really makes watching modern football a much healthier past time.
The back and fourth carried on for a while, with Luke McPharlin and Michael Johnson controlling the Hawks airspace up forward and airspace controlling Fremantle up forward until a gap opened up and Ryan Crowley took a grab inside fifty. As he unloaded with the wind, the ball drifted to the left and Fremantle supporters settled in for n afternoon of convincing themselves that they'd rather win ugly than be entertained. ....Read More