After a blistering opening quarter, Fremantle looked to have put the game away by half time with a barrage of goals from Fremantle's barrage of small and annoying forwards. Nat Fyfe flirted with omnipotence and Hayden Ballantyne appeared to have won some new boots in a fiddle playing contest with the devil. Fremantle got out to a 37 point lead before the long break and hadn't just put the competition on notice, they'd smacked it about the chops and told it to smarten up and fly right.
But there were some nervous looks around the Freo camp when they saw James Hird heading down to the room at half time with two goats and a big arse syringe. No one may ever know what went on down in those Essendon changerooms but they came out a different side in the second half, running rings around a tiring and McPharlinless Dockers to get within striking distance by three quarter time, with Fremantle unable to kick a goal in the entire third quarter.
The last quarter was a tight one, with the Bombers taking the lead, Fremantle winning it back again, Essendon stealing it once more and the Fremantle peppering the behind posts until time ran out and they sat 4 points behind.