There was a sense of optimism about the Fremantle supporters as they crossed the river to get to Subiaco Oval. Not so much about their chances in the match but Saturday afternoon football in Western Australia doesn't come along too often any more. There was a feeling of nostalgia, a feeling not reflected in the price of the hotdogs but a feeling nonetheless, that wallpapered over the current unpleasantness that is often referred to as the 2008 season.

As the players entered the arena bathed in sunshine, it felt right.  The sky was Perth blue, the grass was unsullied by rugby and the shadows were at just the right angles for a game of footy – even if the ground does face the wrong way.

Things looked even more right as Dean Solomon unloaded to his mate at full forward, Tarrant ran onto the ball, shrugged off some ambitious Kangaroos and drilled the opening goal of the match over the old Winnie Blues sign. The crowd were keen.

Not just the crowd either, the players were playing like blokes who's Saturday night out depended on just how well they played. Ferocious at the opposition, leading all over the place and showing the fine skills of Kerry Packer's heart surgeon.

Soon to be given the tag “journey man”, Ryley Dunn, helped keep the scoreboard ticking over when he picked out Pavlich on the lead with lace out precision and Pav avoided the posts to put the Dockers a couple of goals up.

David Mundy joined in with the action when he drifted forward and crumbed like a pro, snapping the ball so unnecessarily that genetic tests will be done later in the week with results likely to show that he is actually a born forward.

The Kangaroos were hardly getting a look in, and when they were, Luke McPharlin was ruling the air with Roger Hayden cleaning up anything he may have missed.

It was a sweeping, Voss like handpass from David Mundy that saw the soon to be much talked about Dunn/Pavlich combination come into play once again with the Fremantle journey man making his skipper look good. Pav kicked another and Fremantle went 4 up.

It was starting to get a bit embarrassing for North Melbourne. Almost a full quarter without a goal on the board and Fremantle had rushed half of what little score they did have.

Jeff Farmer was part of the reason the Roos couldn't score. Starting in the back pocket to confuse everyone, he gradually moved up the ground and was picking up kicks at will. When the leather poison levels got too high for his blood system, he wandered a bit further forward, found a ball that was bouncing around uncontrollably. He picked it up and snapped a miraculous goal then celebrated with the  rarely used by anyone but Peter Bell - Oh Fishy Fishy Fishy Fish move – and took his side into the first break with a 5 goal lead. 

All the signs were good for Fremantle but the Dockers have had plenty of good signs all season long without arriving at any destinations. Mark Harvey's 45 minute pre-game tirade had left everyone clear that there was no room to ease off after kicking a few goals.  Dean Laidley was over giving his players a blow by blow account of every game Fremantle had been in front in and lost so Fremantle were going to have to absolutely bury them before they would lay down.

 A point that was proven very quickly. Revved up by Dean Laidley's colourful retelling of the Fremantle v Geelong game, The Roos burst out of the blocks, putting through two quick goals and making the 5 goal lead suddenly look far from impressive.

A younger, taller looking Peter Bell (standing next to Brent Harvey has it's perks) struck back, stealing the ball from under everyone's nose, putting an unexpected gap between him and his pursuer, then dobbing a classic Peter Bell goal.

It was a much needed steadier, ruined by some inept umpiring that gave the Roos a string of very suspicious free kicks, followed by a freak, wind assisted goal from Matt Campbell.

Another free out of the centre saw the crowd become far less jubilant but the rock solid Fremantle defence held strong once again. They worked the ball down the ground where Robbie Warnock was able to put his homesickness behind him for a few moments, slap the ball down to Rhys Palmer who had a perfect view of the cheer squad celebrating as he drilled another goal.

With things steadied once again, it was time to tip them back Fremantle's way.  Chris Mayne continued the spoon feeding to Pavlich, giving Pav a chance to slot one through from the Jeff Farmer pocket (the one where he kicks goals from, not to be confused with the Jeff Farmer Slipped Disc Pocket where he over played for the free kick).  Pav did all the work himself when the footy ventured out of the centre again, goosifying Firrito before running into an open goal and putting the Dockers 38 points up going into the long break.

A week earlier, Mark Harvey was disgusted with his players and took his frustrations out on an unsuspecting bit of foolscap. This week the story was different. They were playing like the team that had started the season as the contenders to the flag. Jeff Farmer and Peter Bell looked reborn; Roger Hayden was running so hard, there were suspicions that he'd had a third lung installed while he was in the hospital; Pav was back to his surveyor like accuracy in front of goals; Josh Carr looked interested; the youngsters were all earning their spots; and Aaron Sandilands was carving up whatever it was the the Kangaroos were electing to call a ruckman.

Nevertheless, Dean Laidley was down in the rooms, running a video of Fremantle's second half against Melbourne and, with his charismatic commentary that he'd dubbed over the top. They were sure to hit Fremantle hard when they made their way back into the daylight.

What the Kangaroos didn't realise was that Mark Harvey also had brought a copy of that game with him. He'd put together a 10 minute lowlights package of the game, complete with him shouting obscenities at the players, just in case any of the Dockers thought a 38 point lead meant it was time to unfold the sun lounge.

And they came out like a team that had just spent their half time rest being embarrassed and ridiculed by a bloke with the worst coaching record in the league. Throwing themselves about with little regard for the work load of either club's physiotherapist, Fremantle bashed the ball forward until Garrick Ibbotson grabbed it off the ground,  shrugged off two would be tacklers and unloaded from sixty metres out to kick a beauty.

Confident and looking fit, Fremantle didn't look like a side that were going to let this one go and as they started to hit their stride, the list of goal scorers started to look like the desert menu at an Australia Day barbecue - Pav, Pav, Pav.

Jeff Farmer, with all the time in the world, despite six blokes trying to kill him, got Pavlich started with a thumping kick from the centre. Pav slotted it through - no problem. Rhys Palmer's eyes lit up when he saw nothing but daylight and Matthew Pavlich in front of him as he ran down the wing. Pav slotted it through – no problem.  Ryan Crowley had the same vision as he weaved out of the centre, Pav marked, got fifty then slotted it through – no problem.

Fremantle had pushed their lead out to 10 goals and a cautious Freeeeooooooo rang out around Subiaco Oval before the three quarter time siren drowned it out.

A ten goal lead at a Fremantle Dockers game would normally seen a Mexican wave, a lot of chanting, a troupe of circus performers and an impromptu performance of a “Kickett: The Musical” spontaneously erupt around the ground but when you've been up at three quarter time for as many losses as Fremantle has seen, you need to use that five minutes to run some preliminary calculations on whether or not you can still make it to the line.

Five minutes wasn't really enough time to be sure but most supporters weren't entirely convinced it was  enough. Dean Laidley wasn't. He'd set up a small puppet theatre and was acting out the Dockers v Carlton match. The Pavlich puppet had just hit the post when he was forced to pack it in and send his players back onto the ground with one last message - “try and score this quarter”.

It was going to be a telling opening few minutes and what the first minute told was that Matthew Pavlich is an out and out champion. The ball came out of the centre, Dean Solomon hit Tarrant on the chest, Tarrant put it in front of Pavlich and Pavlich had put through 8 goals.

The fans were getting comfortable but the players knew there was still a long way to go.

When the ball came back down to Pavlich, there were about 14 Kangaroos players hanging off him, desperately trying to stop him getting into double figures. Pav cares not for such records though, and unselfishly passed the ball out to Chris Mayne. Mayne, refusing to kick a goal until he's reached his quota of assists, fired a handpass back at Chris Tarrant and Tarrant kicked the Dockers to a 73 point lead.

12 goals was surely enough and the Freeeeoooooo rang out with renewed confidence. Fremantle were headed for their second win of the season, the first in front of people after the three quarter time exodus in the derby.

Petrie got a late one against the flow of play to get the Roos closer. Lower got one against the flow of play as well. Against the flow of play, Brown kicked one. People were starting to shuffle in their seats.

Goals were coming fast for the Roos, the umpires had fallen back into their default position of 'screw the Dockers in the last quarter' and Fremantle players were starting to make some unflattering mistakes. When the flow of play switched and Leigh Harding kicked the Kangaroos 4th in a row, people were starting to go into full scale panic mode.

Mark Harvey isn't one to panic, he's man of action. He brought out his always reliable contingency plan - he threw Pavlich into the centre, stacked the defence, brought Sandilands back onto the ground and sent the runner out to drag McManus (which kept him busy for a few minutes because McManus wasn't playing).

For the first time all day, North Melbourne were looking dangerous. They were peppering the goals and Fremantle didn't seem to have any answers.

No answers...except small forwards with cool hair.

Chris Mayne, abandoned his attempt to win the RAC Assist award at the end of the season, he took it on himself to get his team back on track. He got on the end of a Jeff Farmer kick, in the centre of the ground. He shook off his man and started running. He had a bounce, he ignored a lead from Pav, had another bounce, ignored a lead from Taz, had another bounce, gave a wink to the cameras and then dobbed a goal to bring the crowd back to life.

For those who were still a bit uneasy with a 50 point lead with 5 minutes remaining, The Wiz decided he'd finish off his day out with a bit of fun in front of goals. Using his trademark stealth, he intercepted a pass meant for Firrito, ran in to an open goal and celebrated like a man coming off 8 devastating losses in a row.

The siren went a few minutes later, Fremantle had won their first home game for the season and Jeff Farmer was given the job of backing up the ute full of free footies that had built up over the two month drought.