Fremantle took on their now traditional rivals Melbourne on a cool evening at Subiaco Oval in 2002. The game had it all, Trent Croad kicking a bag of goals, Leigh Brown kicking the greatest goal ever to be disallowed and Jeff Farmer kicking the winning goal after the siren to beat his old footy side. But best of all it featured a Fremantle win.

Fremantle v Melbourne
Saturday May 18th, 2002
Subiaco Oval


You'll never see two blokes jump as high as Simmonds and White at the first bounce of the night, it was like the end of Rocky II would have been if Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed were young ruckmen in the AFL instead of boxers who had overcome the odds and fought their way out of the ghetto. Both players gave it everything they had but it was Simmonds who won out and tapped the ball towards the Freo goals. Unfortunately the Fremantle midfielders had backed White to win and were on the other side. Yze was able to clear the ball for and get it to Green, who put the first score on the board, a point to Melbourne.

Fremantle took it up their end and followed suit with a shocking miss by Ritchie Cunningham. But the defensive zone set up by Fremantle was impenetrable and the best solution the Demons could come up with was to put it out of bounds on the full. Foolishly though the man responsible, Power, put it out of bounds with Paul Hasleby the nearest player to the ball. It was like giving a cream pie to a pensioner at Peter Costello rally. Hasleby knew exactly what to do and weighted the ball perfectly to Trent Croad who had no problems marking and goaling from 30m out directly in front.

While Fremantle were still celebrating the first goal of the match, the ball had been bounced and had been kicked into the hands of Brad Green. He missed his first attempt and he did every thing in his power to miss the second but somehow it snuck through for a goal, giving the Demons the lead. The goal should have been a wake up slap in the face for Fremantle but they let Melbourne do it again. This time it went to Bruce who kicked it like the proverbial spastic and put it through for a point.

That got the Dockers going and a thumping kick out of defence by Pavlich made it's way down to Simmonds who turned on the speed (which indecently is not an uncommon site in the pocket nearest the West Coast change rooms) he got it into the path of Jeff Farmer, his fellow defector, who gave it to Norrish who put it onto the chest of Trent Croad, who dobbed his second goal. All it needed was a few orange witches hats and a portly chap stnading around with a whistle and it would have been a training drill.

Speaking of hats, it was hats off to Matthew Whelan who kicked Melbourne's third to give them back the lead. J.Lo missed a goal which would rival anything Chris Grant has missed in the past 7 weeks and the Melbourne players ran it from one end to the other where Rigoni put the ball on his boot and rolled it through for a Daicos style beauty.

Going goal for goal it was Freo's turn to kick the next, but well renowned queue jumpers Travis Johnstone and David Neitz snuck in and kicked one each to give Melbourne a handy 14 point break at the first change.

Fremantle are a gentlemanly group and while they let Melbourne jump the queue, they weren't going to let them have more than their fair share of goals. Suitably, the first goal went to Fremantle after Matthew Carr put the ball into the forward 50 in the path of Trent Croad. As another ball landed on the chest of Croad, the umpires checked to make sure there wasn't some kind of ball magnet hidden under his jumper.

While Croad was taking his kick, Simmonds and Farmer were hatching a plan. It wasn't a complex plan but it was based on a sound principle. Farmer said "you put the ball in my general direction and I'll run really fast and kick a goal". And that's what he did. Farmer took the ball out of the centre and ran. He ran fast, he had a bounce, ran fast, had a bounce and then he ran a fast a bit more and then he kicked a goal.

There is a reason they call Jeff Farmer The Wizard. It's not because he does ordinary things, it's because he does magical things. So why would everyone else think they could do the same. Peter Bell and Troy Cook had been watching Farmer from the centre square and though they'd give it a try. Simmonds got the ball down to Bell, he tried to run fast but it was working so he palmed it off to Troy Cook. Cook didn't quite catch on as quickly as Bell that he didn't have the legs for it, and was done for holding the ball.

James Walker had a look at Bell and Cook's problem and realising he had the speed they lacked, had a go himself. He ran quick at the goals and took on the chaser but what he failed to realise was that he didn't have the skill of the other three and he too went for holding the ball.

Then the unthinkable happened. Leigh Brown had seen Farmer and then the failed attempts by his team mates and for some reason known only to Brown, thought he'd have a crack at it. "Slow and fat" Brown got hold of the ball, he ran fast and broke a tackle, he had a bounce, ran fast again and broke another tackle. He was in the clear and bounding along the boundary, it was a sight to behold, something usually only captured by the National Geographic photographers. He let fly with a drop punt from 100m out, the ball bounced in the goal square and rolled through for one of the greatest goals you'll ever see. But wherever there's a hero like Browny, there's a villain and in footy, the villain is always in white. Brown was penalised for running too far, the goal was disallowed, Melbourne were given a free kick and the boos from the home crowd reportedly effected the sonar of a pod of whales which led to them beaching themselves on Rottnest. The end result was a two goal turnaround with Melbourne getting a charity goal at the other end.

With Bell, Cook, Walker and Brown all failing to copy the exploits of the Wizard, Simmonds decided it was his turn to have a crack. He tapped the ball down to Cook and then bolted west. Cook gave it back to Simmonds who ran fast, had a bounce, ran fast again and then booted the ball at the goals. The plan was a winner and Fremantle had another goal on the board.

At the half time break it was Melbourne by 7 points and a with no heat to sap the opposition and no stars being taken to hospital, Freo were going to have to fight it out till the end.

After the first 5 minutes of the third term it looked like it was going to be a question of "How many?" for Fremantle with Hasleby adding a goal to his already impressive collection of stats for the day, then Andrew Browne following suit thanks to another Leigh Brown shepherd and Trent Croad marking what he shouldn't have in a nest of 10 or 12 Demon players and then kicking his fourth.

Fremantle's goal burst had them 10 points up when, almost on queue, our old pals the umpires stepped in to sort things out. A soft free kick to Jeff Farmer's replacement Peter Vardy, stopped the Freo momentum and took the margin back to a kick. Then they threw the holding the ball rule out the window for the rest of the quarter. Fremantle went tackle happy but were unrewarded, they needed to get possession of the ball and take advantage of the absence of the holding the ball rule. And that they did.

It was a close call, with Pavlich marking on the Demons goal line. He set in motion a chain of Rolls Royce possesions - from Pavlich to Farmer, to Hasleby, to Cook, to Peter Bell, to Norrish (well maybe that's stretching the Rolls Royce metaphor a bit much) and then into the hands of Trent Croad. Croad put it through for his 5th of the night.

Freo were happy to take a ten point lead into three quarter time. The only problem with that was that there were still 10 minutes to go until the end of the third quarter. Robertson and Green kicked a couple of goals in time on to give the Demons the lead. Luckily for Fremantle they had a young bloke at full forward by the name of Trent Croad. He put on his sixth and seventh goal of the night, as easy as you like, to put the Demons back in their box and regain the lead. Fremantle took a 6 point lead into the last change.

With some good last quarters from Fremantle this year, the crowd were confident - almost cocky. The wave was started up for the first time since the Demolition Derby of 2000. It was an ordinary attempt but Freo supporters can be forgiven for being a bit rusty.

The siren sounding to start play quickly put an end to the wave and straight away it was evident that, like the wave, the last quarter wasn't going to be pretty. They scrapped it out for half the quarter before the first goal was kicked and it went to Melbourne. A great mark to Russell Robertson allowed Bruce to run on towards the Melbourne goals. He mark just shy of the square and the resulting goal gave Melbourne the lead. While Fremantle were still coming to grips with the fact they were behind, Vardy snuck off into the pocket and kicked another goal giving Melbourne a 7 point lead with 8 minutes left on the clock.

Fremantle's response was to get the ball into the capable hands of Leigh Brown, thanks to the capable feet of Troy Simmonds. From 50m out Brown was never going to miss, the ball was too scared not to go through the goals for fear Brown would come after him if he veered to the left or right.

With 5 minutes on the clock and only a point needed it was all downhill from here, until the unthinkable happened with another goal to Jeff Farmer's replacement Peter Vardy. Melbourne were back out to a 7 point lead and the clock was at the 26 minute mark.

But you can't replace Jeff Farmer and he showed the world why. He plucked the ball from a pack of 5 Melbourne players, ran away from the goals and snapped the ball through the goals. It was a close one and a long wait to see how the goal umpire was going to adjudicate. Clearly the goal umpire was in the perfect position to make the call and he put the two fingers out in front to take the margin back to a point with a couple of minutes to go.

It was a tight two minutes. Luckily most Freo supporters have their hearts on yo-yo strings because as Powell snapped 10m out directly in front of goals, their collective hearts sank. Then as the boundary umpire stretched his arms out to signal out of bounds on the full, up they came again.

It wasn't convincing but Freo kept moving the ball forward. Inch by inch they worked it up the ground. 80m out it spilled free to Leigh Brown. Always thinking he put it on his boot to Pavlich hoping that a chance to become a hero would keep Pav at the club but Pavlich couldn't hold onto the mark. The ball hit the deck and was like a bar of soap, no one could pick it up long enough to use it. Finnally Trent Croad got hold of it. He threw it on his boot and snapped it around his body in the general direction of goals. There was no one there when it landed but in a blink of an eye Jeff Farmer was on the scene. He picked the ball up and ran the calculations in his head as to the geometric angles required to make the ball come of his boot and go through the big sticks. As he made his decision about what to do a big lug named Neitz new there was only one chance to stop the inevitable Farmer magic. He threw himself on Farmer and drove him into the ground. The umpires whistle sounded, then the siren followed. A free kick to Farmer for being pushed in the back. It was like a something from a Shakespearian play, a Dickensian novel or a WWF Wrestlemania.

The Wiz knew it was a big kick, he milked the drama with a few stretches and some stares of concentration but he was the Wizard, he was never going to miss. As he ran in and kicked, the ball came off the side of his boot, it was headed straight through for a point until he willed it left and the ball turned and snuck through for a goal. The crowd went mad, Jeff went mad and the players went mad. Fremantle by 5 points.

Scores

Fremantle 2.4 5.8 11.10 14.10 94 Melbourne 4.6 6.9 10.10 13.11 89

Goals

Fremantle   T.Croad 7 J.Farmer 3 L.Brown 1 A.Browne 1 T.Simmonds 1 P.Medhurst 1                           Melbourne   P.Vardy 3 B.Green 2 C.Bruce 2 M.Whelan 2 D.Neitz 1 R.Robertson 1 T.Jonstone 1 A.Leoncelli 1

Clinton Wolf Medal Votes

Paul Hasleby 3 Trent Croad 2 Jeff Farmer 1