In an historic first, Fremantle headed the the Gold Coast - Australia's capital for handing over large sums of cash in nondescript briefcases - to play the Suns. There was a bit of a carnival atmosphere to welcome the Dockers to Metricon Stadium; with bouncy castles, baby ducks and rabbits, carnival rides and face painting. The only thing missing was the Queensland branch of the Mucky Duck Bush Band.
It all brought a smile to the Fremantle players' faces. Not so much because watching Hayden Ballantyne and Lachie Neal set loose on bouncy castle is close to the eighth wonder of the world but because it's always a good sign when the opposition team's marketing department are pushing the face painting more than they're pushing the game of football.
But Ross Lyon was wary. He'd been t the Gold Coast before. He'd hit the nightclubs. He knew that although something may look good on the surface you can often be surprised by what's lurking, or hanging, down below. So, while others may have been sucked in by the antics going on around the ground and lured in to opening things up to try and kick a big, percentage boosting score, he was sticking to his guns. Slow and steady. Well, reasonably steady.
The Suns were keen to use their pace and skills early but the wall of Fremantle players was proving too much for them to handle. Wave after wave of quick, exciting Sun hit them but there was no space and no time. Despite the set backs, like Dermott Brereton telling an anecdote, they were unperturbed by the fact that it was going nowhere.
Eventually luck went against the Dockers and the ball ricocheted in for a point, giving Fremantle a chance to engage in a pre-prepared set play from the stoppage. Stephen Hill took off from the rest of the Fremantle pack and tried to race the ball down the ground. He got there just in time, took a grab and jailed a goal. Fremantle had the lead.
They were ahead of schedule, with one goal every three quarters of an hour, but then communications broke down. Ross had to nick out to the dunnies and Fremantle players lost the plot. They were suppose to be defending a lead, instead Lachie Neale put through a goal. Then Chris Mayne followed suit.
Freo had three goals in a few minutes and by the time Ross got back from the toilets they were 17 points up.
The Freo players looked keen to go on with it. Running rings round your opponent is much more fun than running bog laps around them.
They went forward again but just Pav was about to mark the ball he caught sight of Ross Lyon yelling into the phone and strategically coughed up the mark before pulling the players back in to line.
They defended their lead for the rest of the quarter, with mixed success and went into the first change a point down.
The Gold Coast were pretty impressed. It was the first time they'd been in front at quarter time (hence the face painting and petting zoo) but Ross Lyon was ropable. Well, quietly annoyed. Three goals in quarter is very much part of the game plan but getting those goals so quickly was just obscene. He laid down the law. Goals were to be meticulous and spaced out in ten to fifteen minute periods.
The Gold Coast were a young, inexperience team so they didn't really have as good a handle on some of these finer points of football and Andrew Swallow's brother opened the second quarter with a quick goal that was little more than lairising. They followed that up with a goal from what appeared to be the 'Hack the Leg' kid who gave Ralph Macchio such a hard time in that karate movie.
Some would have panicked at the idea that the Suns were two goals clear of Fremantle but Ross Lyon kept his cool. The game plan was solid, they just needed to siege them out.
On schedule, Ryan Crowley took a very sensible mark inside fifty and converted it in the cold, professional manner expected of him.
The Gold Coast got a reply when Dawson was caught out giving away free kicks in front of goals but a good five or six minutes later the reply game when the other Zac took a well planned mark in the goal square. He converted to bring the margin back to 6 points which gave Fremantle the freedom to concede a couple more goals and safety go into the half time break with a very manageable 17 point deficit.
Steve Harris had been getting a friend to text him the scores at the breaks and when he heard the half time score he was on the phone to James Hird to discuss a potential coaching job in “2016” but those who knew slightly more about football, well that's bit broad, those who understood the intricacies of the Lyon method knew not to worry. It was all just a matter of simple mathematics and time. Anything that happens in the first half is little more than setting up the board. Ross Lyon always make his move in the back half.
And right on schedule, Chris Mayne opened the third quarter with a goal. Well, opened is a bit of a stretch. Eventually Fremantle kicked a goal. It was a bit fancy and the coach had word with him for not taking the more sensible option but Mayne learned his lesson and got back to business.
The Suns had a quick reply through Shaw but everyone knows that Ross Lyon makes his move in the back half of the back half. Roberton drilled one from outside fifty to keep Fremantle in touch before Swallow showed off some of his fancy footwork to push the Suns back out to a 16 point lead.
Fremntle sent the runner out and gave them the message to start trying to kick goals and before you could say 'that little bloke who looks a bit like Ballantyne, I wonder if he’s any good in front of goals', Lachie Neale had unloaded from 65 metres out and James Hirded the ball through for a bouncing goal.
Neale was eying off goal of the day honours for is effort but the ball was back down in the Freo forward line from the next centre bounce and Matt deBoer threw his boot on the ball from somewhere near the bouncy castle to soccer through one of the greatest goals ever kicked by the Dutch. He followed up his magnificence after the next bounce, although this time the kick was a little bit less flamboyant and the Dockers were in front.
There was still plenty of time till three quarter time so Ross got the word out to stop kicking goals and start defending again and Fremantle went into the last change with a 5 point lead.
This was it. The Suns had had decent run. They'd played some good football but their time was up. All the signs were clear, they'd hit the wall and were about to get a bit of a lesson in how to play the modern game of football.
Jared Brennan wasn't quite ready for that lesson and kicked the opening goal of the quarter to take back the lead.
It wasn't much to worry about, Fremantle were in complete control of the game and Matt deBoer popped through his third to give Fremantle back the lead and start the lesson.
That's when Fremantle hit a bit f a snag. Harley Bennell kicked a freak goal from a boundary throw in to give the Suns the lead once more then Campbell Brown took a break from being a caricature of his old man to achieve football competence and give the Suns a handy break.
A small bead of sweat formed on Ross Lyon's brow. The strange salty water confused him. Some of the players started to get worried too. Worry turned to fear, fear turned to panic and then the adrenalin kicked in.
It was a mad house as structures broke down and players started playing on instinct. Mundy and Barlow suddenly appeared after three quarters of running about in the background. Pav stopped worrying about being a number around the ball and headed down to the forward line.
When the unbridled passions of Garrick Ibbotson brought the ball down there he abandoned notions of bring the ball to ground for the crumbers or halving a contest and just grabbed the thing and kicked it between the sticks.
Chris Mayne followed his captain's lead and ran head first into a pack of oncoming Suns. They fell in all directions as each tried in futility to damage a different part of his brain. He was reluctantly given a kick from the umpires and made no mistake, putting the Dockers 7 points in the lead.
Ross was trying to get the word out to defend the lead but the players had a taste of excitement. They fought it out on natural ability at the next centre bounce and were smashed. Bennell swooped in again and brought the Suns within a point.
The bouncy castle was cleared out as Suns supporters flocked to half fill the seats and soak in the final two minutes. It was tense, it was tight, the Suns looked like they were about to send Fremantle home humiliated but the Fremantle players were well drilled. They put aside their ambitions of thrilling football and notions of fun and bottled things up until the ball spilled free and Mzungu shut the gate, handing Fremantle a 7 point win.