The first week in May 2006 was a great week to be from Fremantle. First the AFL awarded them a win on a Wednesday after St Kilda tried to cheat them out of the points, then they came up trumps in one of the classic Derbies of all time. It had it all, flashy goals, screamers in the goal square, big hits, dodgy umpiring and even the odd punch up. But , as always, it was the superior class of the Dockers that shone through in the end.

Fremantle v West Coast
Sunday 7th May 2006
Subiaco Oval

It’s been a funny old week in Fremantle. The build up to the Derby normally goes something like this – Fremantle supporters spend the week trying to goad Eagles supporters into fights. Talking up the Dockers and mocking everything that the Eagles hold dear and sacred. The general reaction from Eagle supporters is to act snooty and pretend they don’t really care about the Derby results. If they lose, they can then continue that attitude without losing too much face, and if they win they tend to carry on as if they’ve just conquered Europe.

But this week Fremantle supporters have been distracted. There was some business down in Tasmania that kept them occupied for most of the week, a fight against injustice, a rally for a return to sportsmanship and a battle for right over might. The Eagles supporters didn’t like that. They missed the attention and started to over compensate. They even tried to cook up some story about how a small defender on the fringes of the Fremantle team was a marked man by one of their Brownlow medallists from something that had happened 7 months ago in another country. It was all quite sad really.

So when the game actually got close there was an atmosphere unlike any other derby. All the cards were on the table. The Eagles had backed themselves in for once and the Dockers had a week of pent up anxiety to release and the face of evil in WA to release it on.

It was a Fremantle home game but there were still plenty of West Coast supporters in the crowd so the players knew the key was going to be to win the crowd over and keep the Eagles supporters quiet. They made sure they took the sting out of the start, with some methodical movement of the ball but unfortunately they hadn’t done their research. When Paul Medhurst accidentally knocked the ball out of bounds, the Eagles crowd erupted – they love to see the ball out of bounds. Then they let Judd get a kick, sure it was a useless kick and it went to nobody – but they love to see Judd get a kick. Then Freo kicked a point -  they love to see the opposition miss a shot at goals.

The Eagles supporters were going off. If they’d had a chance to boo Jeff Farmer at this point, most of them would have gone home, happy with a full game’s worth of football in just the first couple of minutes. It rattled the Dockers a bit. They thought the fact that they had had most of the footy and were controlling the game would mean the Eagles supporters would be unhappy. It rattled them so much that they actually let Matt Rosa get a kick. Somehow he managed to jag a goal out of it and the Eagles hit the front.

It was a goal against the flow of play but a goal nonetheless. Freo were going to have to start capitalising up forward on their good work in the other two thirds of the ground. A Michael Voss like handpass from James Walker cleared the ball from the centre, Crowley kicked it forward but it went over Medhurst’s head and out of bounds  (which sent the West Coast supporters into a frenzy). But when the ball was thrown back in, Joshy Carr ripped the ball out of Chad Fletcher’s hands, spun around and dobbed a miracle goal.

There was only a point in it but Freo were starting to worry that their giant ruckman was struggling to keep up with the Brownlow Medal favourite so they called on Mr Versatile - Graham Polak. He hasn’t done a lot of ruckwork in his career but he has spent a lot of time in Jandakot drinking Devonshire Tea in his time, so he had a trick up his sleeve. The ball was bounced, he hit it like a giant windmill and a few handpasses later, Josh Carr soccered goal number two and the Dockers were setting the pace.

Polak was a born ruckman. This time he ripped it out of the centre, gave it off to Michael Johnson who was on the bolt from centre half back. Johnson went to Matthew Carr and Carr put it into the hands of Luke McPharlin, laces out, sponsors logo to the camera. McPharlin dobbed the goal and the Dockers were storming ahead.

It was a terrific start for Freo. Any doubts on whether or not they were going to be up to the challenge had well and truly being allayed, it was just a question of doing it all day. One thing that was unusual though was that the AFL had made the strange decision to get some Roman umpires in. Ancient Roman ones to be precise, who were all geed up for a crucifixion and, you guessed it, Fremantle were the ones who were getting nailed. Free kicks were being picked out at random, at the whim of the umpires. It seemed that after the AFL’s decision to award the Dockers the win in Tasmania, the umpires had decided to throw out the rule book. The very astute Fremantle crowd were flabbergasted.

They did everything but kick the ball for the Eagles, meanwhile any Fremantle players in need of umpire assistants were asked to produce an identikit composite of the player who infringed them and wait 2-4 weeks while a report was filled out.

It wasn’t doing the Eagles much good at first but, as the severity of the crucifixion rose, the influence was getting stronger. It was getting so bad that Pavlich was showing signs of stigmata. So bad that Staker actually kicked a goal. So bad that Steven Dodd was sledging in Aramaic. Yet Fremantle were still able to dominate around the ground. Aaron Sandilands grabbed the ball out of ruck, spun around and put a perfectly weighted kick onto the chest of Matthew Pavlich. Pav had no trouble kicking the goal and Fremantle moved back out to a 12 point lead.

There was still the issue of the Roman umpires hanging over their heads though and, despite Josh Carr clearing the ball from the centre as if he was the only bloke in the middle, Pavlich was having to contend with 6 blokes hanging off him and Aaron Sandilands was getting pinged at throw ins despite Cox laying more shepherds than Little Bo Beeps slutty sister.  It got so bad that at one point Andrew Embley was able to kick a goal – a sure sign that something wasn’t right.

Despite the Romans and the Embleygate scandal, Fremantle were still doing pretty well and at they went into the quarter time in the lead with the score line reading Fremantle 4.4 (28) Umpires 3.2 (20) West Coast 0.3 (3)

When the second quarter got going, it looked like the Dockers might find themselves running a close second by half time, with the Eagles lagging well behind the other two teams. If anyone wondered why the umpire hadn’t listened to the Freo players when they told him the siren had sounded a week earlier, it reason was becoming apparent – umpires can’t see or hear Fremantle players.  It was just getting silly, Embley even kicked another goal to put the ‘Eagles’ in front.

Fremantle were looking good though. If they could get the Romans on side they were going to roll this mob. When the ball went back into the centre, Creepy Crowley ran through the guts and picked the pockets of the most fancied midfield in the competition before bombing it long down the guts. It went in the direction of Pavlich, who shook off three of the six blokes he was carrying, and ran his measure with the other three still attached. When he saw Des Headland on the bolt, he casually dropped it onto his left foot and slotted the ball onto Dessy’s chest. Des drilled the goal and Freo were back in the lead.

The game see-sawed from there, the umps kicking a goal for the Eagles, Fremantle closing down the quick West Coast runners, halving the contests, winning the hard ball to earn an inspiring goal, followed by more soft frees to the Eagles to peg them back. Fremantle were playing a fantastic physical game though, occasionally marred by the odd skill error, and the Eagles were being shown up as the pretenders we’ve always known them to be.

It was shaping as one of the great Derbies, with Fremantle a couple of points in front well into the second quarter, when disaster struck. Their 211cm ruckman had somehow mysteriously broken his jaw. It’s hard to imagine what could have done that – a low flying aeroplane perhaps. Obviously not another player because Fremantle’s free kick count still stood at 1. As the big man staggered off the ground like a tranqued up King Kong down a New York street, Fremantle’s chances were staggering along too. They’d gone into the game without a backup ruckman and Polak had already used up his two tricks.  It was one of those situations where you need a really long shovel, so you can dig deep and stand up at the same time.

Pavlich, of course, has a well stocked tool shed and he dobbed one of his goals that make his opponents look like little kids out there just to get his autograph, to take Freo out to an 8 point lead. It was a handy break but not enough to cover for the complete absence of a ruckman and umpires who hadn’t even been able to average a free kick each to Fremantle in half a game of football.

It gave the Eagles a chance to get a bit of a run on. Thankfully they’re forward line has the equivalent firepower of a couple of pop up sprinklers and a busted up Nurf gun, so it only resulted in a couple of goals. It did give them the lead though so the Fremantle runner was sent out to Matty Pavlich and his extraordinarily long shovel to tell him he was now a ruck rover. 

It was an inspired move and faster than  the umpires could say – “you’re kick Embley”  - Dessy Headland had drilled another goal and the Dockers went into half time with a two point lead and a long break to regroup.

Part of the regrouping process was to get the umpires on side. 3 free kicks in half a game of football is unheard of, even in a Derby.  So they decided if the umpires were going to act like Romans, they’d send St Peter in to convert them. So Peter Bell preached to them like only a fisherman can, possibly even a bit bluer.  Whatever he said though, he had them knocking back the communion wafers like Samboys by the end of his sermon.

Pavlich had a free kick in the opening minute of the second half and the crowd rose as one. The field had been levelled, there were even some thoughts of a few square ups.  It was hard to see the Dockers not winning now. Then Staker kicked a goal and the Eagles hit the front.

The pressure was back on Fremantle and they needed to settle themselves down. They kept possession of the ball and tried to find a way through the Johnny Worsfold flood.  They had to give up the long kicking direct stuff to the forwards as Woosha employed a flood so deep that at one point Suma and Jako pushed their dingy out into it to see of they could land a couple of pink snapper. Eventually, Michael Johnson just said ‘bugger this’ and bolted out of defence with the ball under his arm. He had a couple of bounces and then bombed it to centre half forward where Mundy was running by himself. Mundy took the grab, spun around and kicked it to Pav. Pav was raped in the goal square and a free kick went his way for once, giving him an easy kick to give the Dockers the lead.

The Freeeeeooooooo chant rang out and the Dockers took things up a notch. They were peppering the goals, against an Eagles defence best described as a flywire door with a busted hinge, but were still having no luck getting the ball to go through.  Then another bit of Michael Johnson brilliance split the ground open, there were Freo players everywhere as he set up Graham Polak in the forward line. Polak moved quickly, like a panther with an extremely strong pair of hands and stupid hair cut. He ran on and sent the ball long to Pavlich. Pav pushed his man out of the way and was just about to mark it when Josh Carr came flying from the other direction and turned an easy chest mark into a screamer. The crowd went mad, Josh kicked the goal and the Dockers were up by 9 points.

The Freeeeeeooooooo chant rang out again but there was little time for poxy chanting. It was edge of the seat stuff as the players desperation levels went through the roof. It was intense footy with no easy kicks and no time to worry about trivial things like pain and oxygen. The Eagles weren’t going to let Fremantle have this one but there was no bloody way the Dockers were going to lose it.

A rare blot in Michael Johnson’s book gave Jamie Graham a chance to close the gap and sent half a nervous murmur through the crowd – but there was no time for woe either. It was back on again and when Scotty ‘Flock of Seagulls’ Thornton  flew through the center the murmurs turned to delight. He had a couple of bounces and then spotted Pavlich kicking down the flywire door defence. The kick was perfect and Pav gobbled it up. Slamming through the goal and taking the Dockers back out to a 10 point lead.

It slowed the game down and Freo fell right into the Eagles trap to wait the clock out. It seemed like it would be a nil all draw until one of the recently converted umpires dipped into the communion wine once too often and gave the worst free kick of the day, after a very low standard had been set early on too. The Eagles caught the Dockers off guard and a lucky snap from a crippled Daniel Chick got the Eagles within a kick at the last change.

For those in the crowd, it was a nervous few minutes pondering the quarter to come. For those on the ground it was a welcome rest after one of the most exhausting quarters for the season. Johnny Worsdfold would have been telling his boys to keep on throwing your heads back when you’re tackled, to make sure you always fall forward and watch out for Sumas line when we’re flooding. Chris Connolly would have been telling his players to keep getting to the bottom of the packs, keep running to help out your mates and, most importantly, kick the thing through the big sticks more times than the other mob.

WA was set for a big twenty odd minutes of footy. The undefeated, unblemished, magnificent specimens of human beings collectively operating as the West Coast  Eagles were trailing the rough necks from across the river who were predicted to be sacking their coach at the end of the round. The crowd were buzzing. It was like a real derby, a Fremantle derby, where you were half hoping that a bomb would land on you during the game - sure you might die a horrible bloody death but it’d be worth it just to watch the clowns from the other side of town die too.

The players had that crazy Derby look in their eyes too. There were more than 4 points at stake, they were playing for pride and respect – playing for their jumper. It was footy how it was meant to be played.

The first ten minutes of the quarter were ferocious. Blokes were running forty metres just to get a finger tip on the footy, players were queuing up to lay tackles, Josh Carr was getting to the bottom of so many packs that the Tasmanian government were thinking about calling him in for the last fifty metres of tunnelling towards the trapped miners. Forget finals like footy – it was Derby footy.

Then when a gap opened up and Chris Judd ran into an open goal to put the Eagles in front it was devastating. The Eagles supporters sprung to life. They love to see Judd get a kick. They fancied their chances from here and who could blame them. It was Fremantle’s worst nightmare. They’d kept Judd under control for most of the day so to see his photo on the front page of the paper the next morning would be a bitter, bitter pill to swallow. This was Fremantle’s day.

It was time for all the Fremantle players to pull out the long shovels now. They fought hard to get the ball forward but couldn’t get a score. They won the footy, then lost it, then won it back again. When they got it into their forward line, they knew they couldn’t let it out unless it was being carried by a boundary umpire.

Graham Polak was like a human shark net across the Fremantle half forward line. No matter how many times the Eagles tried to clear it, they couldn’t get it to go anywhere but into Polak’s hands. The clock was ticking down though, and the longer they took to score the harder it was becoming.

There’s only one place you go when you’re desperate to score - Shane Parker. Parker ran down the ground to dip his toe in the flood waters and when he got hold of the footy he let fly with an 80 metre drop punt. It hit the pack of players and fell to the ground. Peter Bell was onto it like it was part of a set play, he scooped the ball up and drilled it into the umpires head. Freo were up by point.

There was 5 minutes left on the clock. It was real pressure footy and it was starting to show, the Dockers got the ball forward quickly but missed some costly chances. Going the other way the Eagles players were hearing footsteps and seeing shadows.  So it was under the grandstand where there are no shadows and the crowd are deafening that they able to do the damage. A freak mark from Staker (freak because he marked it) gave the Eagles their 12thn goal and the lead. It was more devastation for Freo – Judd was one thing but imagine Staker’s photo on the front page of the paper.

There were three minutes left. Suma and Jako were after the King George whiting now and Fremantle’s scoring chances weren’t looking great. There was pleading for holding the ball and appeals for deliberate out of bounds everywhere. Josh Carr snapped from the pocket but missed to close the gap to 1 point. Time was running out, thoughts started to shifting to rushing a behind to save the draw.

Then Peter Bell got the ball in his hands on the wing. He had space, Freo supporters had hope. What could the little Korean make of this. He looked down the ground and saw Paul Hasleby lurking in the forward line and threw the footy onto his boot.

Hase was staring directly into the sun, he couldn’t see a thing. He had to operate on just sound of the ball moving through the air. As he heard it approaching, he put his arms out and the footy stuck. The crowd went mad. He still needed to put it through though. Forty metres out on a slight angle with forty thousand people hanging on his every movement. But there was never anything to worry about, he kicked it like a young Justin Longmuir and it sailed straight over the goal umpires head.

Freo were in front. There were 40 seconds on the clock. Seaby grabbed the ball out of the ruck and ten Dockers pounced on him - ten other blokes appealed for the free kick (and this week they weren’t left standing around like mugs). The umpire threw his arms, the crowd went sick and a few seconds later the PA rang out with one of the sweetest sounding Freo Heave Ho’s ever.

Scores

Fremantle 4.4 7.8 10.11 12.16 88 West Coast 3.5 7.6 10.8 12.11 83

Goals

Fremantle   M.Pavlich 4   J,Carr 3   D.Headland 2   L.McPharlin 1   P.Hasleby 1   P.Bell 1                                       West Coast     B.Staker 3   A.Embley 2   M.Seaby 2   D.Chick 1   R.Jones 1   C.Judd 1   J.Graham 1   M.Rosa 1                           No Comments. [ Back ] Copyright © 2008 Dockerland.com