Fremantle have met another of their contractual obligations with the AFL, completing 4 quarters of the NAB Challenge nightly summer tv series. They came up against the Western Bulldogs at the Etihad Stadium and all the big names showed up, except Fyfe who was detained at the airport while a team of beagles searched his hair. On paper it should have been a shellacking and had the paper been written in one of the months not beginning with Febru then it would have been but prefer to apply their shellac later in the year and cruised in for one of their traditional 28 point wins.

Under normal circumstances, Fremantle would have sent the rookie list over to Melbourne with the intern,or Peter Sumich, running the show while Pav and the boys posted photos of sunsets onto the Twitter but they were coming off a bit of an embarrassing scoreline against the other local team, traditionally know as the defendant, and the order came up from the management bunker that they needed to keep the sponsors on side, until the contracts were signed.

So they did their bit for the club, however they preferred to put their skills on the line rather than their bodies, so there was a lot of open footy, with long kicks hitting blokes on the purple chevrons with a surprising amount of precision. It was a prettier effort than we're used to seeing, with Aaron Sandilands (the only bloke unable to avoid getting belted around) looking well worth the trunk full of gold bullion he gets paid every week as he spoon fed the pretty boys in the middle.

All the boys looked in good condition for this time of the year, with Michael Walters and Michael Johnson looking like they’ll be going around again in the All Australian team. Matthew Pavlich was running amok up forward and only got better as the night wore on. He’s in for a big 2014 too.

While everyone kept themselves out of trouble, Scott Gumbleton needn't have bothered, his body fell apart without much effort and he was wheeled off with a hamstring injury in the first quarter and looks like missing the start of the season. David Mundy got a poke in the eye towards the end of the game but that just takes him another step closer to his goal of being the first pirate to play in the AFL.

That brings the NAB Challenge to a confusing and pointless end for the year, Fremantle will now play a scratch match against the Eagles next Thursday, 6th March, at Subiaco Oval before the real season kicks off with a Round 1 teaser against Collingwood on the 14th of March.