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Twenty Two Players Found To Tackle Bombers

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The nay sayers said it couldn’t be done but Ross Lyon laughed in their faces and has indeed managed to find 22 players to run out onto the ground on Sunday afternoon. While many questions whether or not most of Essendon’s 22 should be allowed to take to any sporting field at all, it was Fremantle who were under the spotlight this week with the sudden loss of Fyfe, Barlow, Walters, Ibbotson and Chris Mayne… as well as a bunch of players who don’t meet the due diligence test or whatever it says at the top of Chris Bond’s spreadsheet. On top of that, Zac Dawson is back into the team. It’s not all bad news though. Clancee Pearce is back with Colin Sylvia set to make his purple debut. Josh Simpson is in the mix too, along with Matt Taberner and Zac Clarke. In contrast to Fremantle, the Bombers are looking pretty healthy and have just chucked a few names onto the end of last week’s team to fill out the form correctly. They can’t afford the fine.

You Be Ross: Fremantle v Essendon

Ross Lyon has his sights set on the flag this year but he's the sort of bloke who loves to get feedback from the general public, good or bad. So if you really want to be a true supporter of the club, then make sure you shout stuff out to him at the ground and give him some pointers on how to get this coaching caper done. But before you do your duty as a member and hurl advice in the direction of professional coaching staff, make sure you know what you're talking about or they might just right you off as a nutjob and miss out on some choice advice. Work the board, move the magnets around and when you think you've got it sussed, startÂ practisingÂ yelling "Hey Ross! Ross! Put Sandilands in the goal square for a rest!"


Zac Dawson	Luke McPharlin	Lee Spurr
Brendon Goddard	Joe Daniher	Paul Chapman

Danyle Pearce	Michael Johnson	Paul Duffield
David Zaharakis	Jason Winderlich	Ben Howlett

Cameron Sutcliffe	Ryan Crowley	David Mundy
Heath Hocking	Jobe Watson	Brent Stanton

Hayden Ballantyne	Matthew Pavlich	Matt de Boer
Michael Hibberd	Dustin Fletcher	Dyson Heppell

Hayden Crozier	Zac Clarke	Lachie Neale
Michael Hurley	Cale Hooker	Mark Baguley

Aaron Sandilands		Jake Carlisle
Tendai Mzungu		David Myers
Stephen Hill		Jackson Merrett
Colin Sylvia	Nick Suban	Dylan Van Unen
Josh Simpson	Clancee Pearce	Jason Ashby
Matt Taberner	Tommy Sheridan	Martin Gleeson
Jack Hannath	Jake Melksham	Travis Colyer
Kyle Hardingham	Leroy Jetta

There's No Redemption In Round 3

Redemption wasn’t waiting for Fremantle at the MCG. It had been billed as a Grand Final Rematch but there was nothing grand or final about this match. A win wouldn’t dry up the tears that fell last September, nor fill the hole in Matthew Pavlich’s giant heart, nor mend the psychological damage to Nat Fyfe that he tries to cover up with hair, nor bring back those lost days between October 12th and 18th that saw Hayden Ballantyne disappear only to return speaking fluent mandarin and missing a kidney. It certainly wouldn’t repair the damage Aaron Sandilands did to all that furniture, and the walls, and those cars and the buildings, and those poor, poor villagers, on that fateful morning last year when the night terrors boiled over. That was all behind them now and the only way forward was to get their hands on that shiny, purple ribbon adorned cup.

It was actually one of the few times that when a coach says the game is just about 4 points that they were telling the truth. The 4 points would keep one of the two sides on top of the ladder for another week, they'd save the pain and humiliation for later on the year when the stakes were high.

The fact that both teams missing a few important players - Nat Fyfe, Michael Barlow, Hodge, all the Hawthorn ruckman and even Zac Dawson helped take the heat out of the build up but no one was expecting just how low key Fremantle would start the game. Ross Lyon's legendary dampening skills looked to have been over used pre-game as the Dockers stood around watching the Hawks wander away from the centre with the football.

Perhaps, through their one experience their, Fremantle thought all games at the MCG started with a parade and Hunters & Collectors concert, and they were waiting for them to play Nat Fyfe’s new anthem ‘Throw Your Arms Around Him’ but it was looking like the Hawks had caught Fremantle off guard a bit. They put on a couple of quick goals with Fremantle not just struggling to keep up but starting to look very much outclassed. Ross Lyon must have been regretting his decision to not bring over any replacements for Barlow and Fyfe in the centre square.

The expectation was that Fremantle would settle, block the Hawks run and try and sneak through a couple of late ones before regrouping at quarter time but the Hawks just kept kicking goals. Fremantle's defence was a shambles and it became apparent just how important Zac Dawson is to the team, they desperately needed someone to blame it all on.

Matthew Pavlich eventually juggled a mark in the goal square, so he was just within his range, and managed to get Fremantle on the scoreboard (avoiding another humiliating goalless opening quarter like the previous time they'd played the Hawks) but by quarter time Fremantle had conceded more goals than they had in an entire game this season. Not to mention the 30 points they were in the hole.

It wasn't time to panic though. Ross Lyon would soon be striding out into the centre to give them all what for and send them off to go about their business, throwing a blanket over the Hawthorn midfield, shutting down the Hawks' forward line and bringing this game of football to it's knees.

He probably needed to explain it all a bit clearer. Smith dobbed a couple of early goals to push the Hawks even further ahead and it was looking like not much had changed. They were still slow and sluggish, and the structure had more holes in it than a story about one of Troy Buswell’s nights out.

The steady hands of Matthew Pavlich got Fremantle their second goal but that almost seem to irritate the Hawks. They went on a rampage and Fremantle offered little resistance.

Before the game, Ross Lyon had pointed out that Fremantle needed to keep the Hawks under 12 goals if they were going to win the game. That Hawks had their 12 goals by half time so Fremantle had to spend most of the long break retooling their strategy and when they returned from the rooms it looked like Ross had finally taken off the handbrake, unleashing a star studded bunch of huge big men and chaotic small forwards in a kaleidoscope of attacking options, with Matthew Pavlich brought up his third goal inside the opening minute.

The Fremantle supporters braced themselves for a resounding Freeee-ooooo chant, anticipating it to be the first of many in the Fremantle fightback...but those Melbourne Freo supporters don’t have much luck. It was all a bit of a mirage. There was no fight in the Dockers and Hawthorn kept on marching towards a percentage boosting win with another three goals, some might say unnecessarily flashy goals at that.

Ballantyne and Duffield kicked a couple of nice ones to ease the indignity of the two goal first half but the Hawks were running Fremantle into the ground, leaving themselves little room to improve later in the season. Fremantle, on the other hand, had a lot of what the football linguists like to call up-side. In fact they had a crap load of up-side and, since there was no indication of self harm from the Fremantle players, that’s presumably what they focussed on at three quarter time when they went in 11 goals down.

In a better world, they would call these sorts of games off and let everyone go their separate ways, never to speak of it again but the people running the AFL have always been bastards and they’ve always hated Fremantle, so the Dockers headed out to the last quarter where the Hawks put upon them the ultimate indignity - they eased up.

Not worthy of Hawthorn’s time anymore, the Hawks shut up shop in the last quarter and let the Dockers kick some cheap goals, denying Fremantle the chance to save face. But Freo are a professional unit and, though they knew they had been well beaten, they ignored Hawthorn’s hubris, put thrown egos aside and made the most of the opportunity, kicking 6 goals and cutting back on some of the damage done to their percentage.

When the final siren sounded, Hawthorn had the 4 points and the spot on top of the ladder but Fremantle know there are plenty more of those 4 points on offer and they’ll bide their time. For in 22 weeks the Dockers will finally get that shot at redemption.

StatsCloud: Hawthorn v Fremantle

Numbers...you can't trust them. The Romans knew what numbers were up to and wouldn't have a bar of them. You can put your faith in a nice sturdy X but a 10, it's shifty. The only thing more iffy than a number is a statistic, they'll cut you open and rob you of your kidneys before you can say "aren't you supposed to drug me and put in a bath of ice first?". Unfortunately we're hooked on numbers though, we need them to work out how many kicks David Mundy had this week...and probably some other stuff too. The Dockerland Labs spent the summer pondering the problem and eventually, when the cricket was over, the fridge was empty and the clicker broke in everyone's pen, they came up with a solution - the stats cloud. A quick glance and you'll pretty much know everything about a game of football that there was to know, at least all the boring bits about it. The bigger the player's name, the more kicks, or marks, or tackles he had compared to his teammates.Â

disposalcloud

Garrick Ibbotson David Mundy Paul Duffield Jack Hannath Nick Suban Lachie Neale Stephen Hill Tendai Mzungu Hayden Ballantyne Danyle Pearce Cameron Sutcliffe Michael Walters Chris Mayne Lee Spurr Aaron Sandilands Michael Johnson Luke McPharlin Matthew Pavlich Ryan Crowley Matt De Boer Hayden Crozier Tom Sheridan

kickscloud

Hayden Ballantyne Ryan Crowley Nick Suban Lee Spurr Danyle Pearce Michael Walters Tendai Mzungu Paul Duffield Hayden Crozier Chris Mayne Cameron Sutcliffe Aaron Sandilands Jack Hannath Matthew Pavlich Luke McPharlin Stephen Hill Garrick Ibbotson Lachie Neale Tom Sheridan Matt De Boer David Mundy Michael Johnson

handballscloud

Tendai Mzungu Danyle Pearce Hayden Crozier Paul Duffield Tom Sheridan David Mundy Ryan Crowley Lee Spurr Garrick Ibbotson Hayden Ballantyne Lachie Neale Jack Hannath Matthew Pavlich Cameron Sutcliffe Chris Mayne Michael Walters Michael Johnson Aaron Sandilands Matt De Boer Nick Suban Stephen Hill Luke McPharlin

markscloud

Jack Hannath Tom Sheridan Lachie Neale Danyle Pearce Nick Suban Chris Mayne Garrick Ibbotson Luke McPharlin Hayden Ballantyne Lee Spurr Michael Walters Ryan Crowley Michael Johnson Aaron Sandilands Cameron Sutcliffe Paul Duffield Matthew Pavlich Stephen Hill Hayden Crozier Matt De Boer David Mundy Tendai Mzungu

scorecloud

Nick Suban Danyle Pearce Ryan Crowley Tom Sheridan Stephen Hill Cameron Sutcliffe David Mundy Chris Mayne Hayden Crozier Tendai Mzungu Matt De Boer Luke McPharlin Michael Johnson Lee Spurr Paul Duffield Michael Walters Garrick Ibbotson Hayden Ballantyne Matthew Pavlich Lachie Neale Aaron Sandilands Jack Hannath

ratingcloud

Cameron Sutcliffe Jack Hannath David Mundy Lee Spurr Matt De Boer Michael Walters Michael Johnson Paul Duffield Garrick Ibbotson Tom Sheridan Luke McPharlin Matthew Pavlich Hayden Ballantyne Stephen Hill Danyle Pearce Lachie Neale Hayden Crozier Chris Mayne Aaron Sandilands Tendai Mzungu Ryan Crowley Nick Suban

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News_Archives

Twenty Two Players Found To Tackle Bombers

You Be Ross: Fremantle v Essendon

There's No Redemption In Round 3

StatsCloud: Hawthorn v Fremantle

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