It was a typical Ross Lyon execution. A bullet to the gut in the opening quarter and then a long wiat while they bleed out. Collingwood had brought an awful lot of gause though and seemed to have one of those 3-2-1-clear-bazing machines which saw them linger a bit longer than most, hitting the front in the third quarer but Fremantle steadied themselves and put one more slug, right through their temple, to finish the job in the last and romp home to a 27 point win.
It was an impressive start to the game. The Fremantle forwards ran rings around the highly fancied Magpies in the opening quarter with Hayden Ballantyne running about like a kid on Christmas morning while Michael Walters danced around the Magpie defence like a young Gene Kelly (admintadly with more neck tattoos than Mr Kelly sported). Up and down the ground, the Fremantle players looked a couple of classes about the Pies, running rampant in attack and pouring on the pressure in the rare moments when Collingwood were able to get a look at the footy.
Despite losing Jon Griffin when his knee gave way, and having to replace him with Zac Dawson, Fremantle pressed out to a 44 point lead at half time and had the game sewn up.
A brief flirt with form from the Pies, and some slacking off in the middle from the Freo boys resulted in a closer than expected third term, Collingwood actually took the lead at one point but the effort it took to get back into the game meant they were, in medical jargon, rooted, so it was a walk in the park for Fremantle come the last quater, as they kicked on for a comfortable win.
