In a rare act of acknowledging their existence, Fremantle were given a choice at the start of the year. They could continue playing teams 1 through 15 and head to the SCG this week to play Sydney or they could go and play the reigning premiers on their mud heap in freezing cold Geelong. They opted for Geelong. Success in Geelong hasn't been something Fremantle have become familiar with over the years. Success against Geelong hasn't been something Fremantle have become familiar with but the last time the Dockers beat the Cats was a cold at Kardinia Park when no one gave them a chance and most spent the lead up wanting to see everyone at the club strung up for crimes against football.

Last time Fremantle met Geelong, the Cats were expecting to give Fremantle the sort of touch up they casually handed out to the Eagles a few weeks ago. They were wrong. Courageous, audacious, defiant and tough, Fremantle looked the reigning premiership side square in the eyes and refused to blink. Geelong didn't know what had hit them in the opening quarter when Fremantle denied them any ground, putting through what would have been a match winning lead against most sides. The Cats fought back though and finally pried the lead from the Dockers in the last quarter. With time and the umpires against them, Fremantle were up against it but they refused to give in. Against the biblical style flooding, they picked out Pavlich twice. The first straight through the middle, the second...straight into the post leaving Fremantle 1 point shy of the Cats when the final siren sounded a half a minute early. Michael Johnson and Garrick Ibbotson ran amok with the ball for Freo while Joel Corey had 35 touches for the Cats. Pavlich kicked 5 goals and Jimmy Bartel kicked 3. Sandilands, Thornton and Pavlich picked up the Clinton Wolf Medal votes.

For some reason there is a gap in the records prior to the Round 6 game. Like fight club or John Worsfold's ever rising hair line, it's something you just don't talk about. Luckily, Geelong have won so many games in the past 18 months that they have agreed to remove any record of the past three two seasons from their books (in exchange Fremantle had to agree that never again would their cheer squad show up wearing the same flannelette shirts as Geelong's cheer squad). All we can say about the matches is that Fremantle lost by less than Bobby Davis's age and Mark Harvey came close to having the shortest coaching career since Bernie Quinlan.

Fremantle don't have a great history with Geelong. Still bitter than we stole Andrew Wills from them, the Cats have been routinely handing out thrashing to Fremantle in the hope that they can somehow fill the void he left. Geelong won 10 out of their first 12 matches before the pain started to subside. In Round 13 of 2002 Fremantle started the pay back towards Geelong when they won at Subiaco Oval by 45 points. Then it was a 16 point win in 2003 and then 26 points in 2004. Unfortunately the streak was broken when Fremantle were sent to Geelong on one of the coldest, wettest day in Australian history.

The Dockers were greeted by pouring rain and a giant mud puddle when they ran onto Kardinia...er, Ford....er Shell...er, the big footy oval in Geelong. They handled the conditions well early, applying an ironic flood and keeping Geelong to a handful of points. Without umpire interference could have been in front at quarter time but in the second half it all went wrong. Geelong kicked 6 goals and 10 behinds to Fremantle's 5 points. Fremantle lost by 50 points. The three goals were kicked by Medhurst, Bell and Jeff Farmer - who came down with hypothermia for his troubles. McCarthy, Johnson and Riccardi kicked a couple each for Geelong. Peter Bell had 20 touches, Justin Longmuir 19 and for the Cats it was Gary Ablett's kid and Jimmy Bartel doing the damage with 27 touches each. Bartel, Johnson and Milburn picked up the umpires' votes.

Fremantle learnt their lesson from that match and, when they returned to the ground a year later, Round 10 2005, the Dockers beat Geelong at Skilled Stadium for the first time ever. Most of the world had written Freo off after a humiliating loss to the Hawks at home a week earlier but they came out with all guns blazing against the Cats. They tackled and ran like their lives depended on it. They hit hard and they didn't give the Cats an inch. They got the jump on Geelong early and didn't let up, diving to the line with a 9 point lead and a lot more respect. Jeff Farmer kicked 4 goals and Peter Bell had 29 disposals. For the Cats, Paul Chapman and Kent Kingsley were the only multiple goal scorers. Gary Ablett's kid topped the possessions with just 19 after Troy Cook through a blanket over him for most of the day. Paul Hasleby, Jeff Farmer and Jimmy Bartell picked up the Brownlow votes.

That win brought the record up to 6 wins and 12 losses before the unmentionable unpleasantness of the last two seasons.

Last week the Cats made the unenviable trip to Adelaide to play the Crows. Keen to leave, the got the game over with as quickly as possible with a 68 point flogging. Jimmy Bartel had 41 possessions, Joel Selwood 37 and Corey Enright a lazy 36. Tom Lonergan kicked 4 goals. That was their 5th win in a row after Collingwood knocked them off in May (taking home yet another of their coveted May Premierships).They are currently somewhere near the top of the ladder with 13 wins for the season.

Fremantle spent the weekend freshening up for the game but prior to the bye they took on the underrated Bombers. A tight finish saw Fremantle go down in another narrow loss. Aaron Sandilands had 25 disposals and a gazillion hit outs but was robbed of votes in the Clinton Wolf Medal, Matthew Pavlich kicked 6 goals. That was Fremantle's second loss in a row after a thrashing of the highly fancied Kangaroos in Round 12. They are currently 5 games out of the 8.