Dockers save the day at the death

By Guy Hand, 1 Mar 2010 Guy Hand is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: AFL, Fremantle Dockers, NAB Cup, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Ryan Murphy, St Kilda Saints

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Six seconds away from a soul-destroying defeat, Fremantle instead salvaged a thrilling four-point victory over North Melbourne to set up a showdown with St Kilda in the AFL pre-season cup semi-final next weekend.

Dockers forward Ryan Murphy booted the winning goal in the dying seconds to seal a dramatic 1.12.13 (94) to 0.13.12 (90) quarter-final win at Etihad Stadium on Sunday night after Fremantle looked to have thrown away victory inside the last 10 minutes.

Fremantle led at every change and held the upper hand throughout, but North fought back from three goals down inside the final few minutes to take a two-point lead.

As another Docker shocker loomed, instead the club famed for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory regrouped to do exactly the opposite.

Dockers wingman Stephen Hill, who had been influential with 17 important touches, swooped on a loose ball to start the move which sent Murphy running to goal.

Fremantle also achieved the win without captain Matthew Pavlich and midfield gun Paul Hasleby – something which pleased coach Mark Harvey almost as much as the nail-biting win.

“From a morale and self-belief point of view hopefully it holds us in good stead,” Harvey said of a side which featured 12 first and second-year players.

“It’s just pleasing we’re not relying on too many of our star players.

“Just to see the faces of some of our first and second-year players to win on the road … we’re improving in the some of the areas we’ve had issues with.

“We’re starting to get a little bit more mature and we’re starting to handle a lot of those stronger situations better, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Fremantle had looked set for a far more comfortable win and a rare victory in Melbourne, until things threatened to unravel spectacularly in the final few minutes.

Successive goals to David Hale, Todd Goldstein and Drew Petrie drew the Kangaroos within a point after they had trailed by 18 with 10 minutes left.

Then two behinds to Ed Lower and another to Ben Warren pushed the Roos into what had seemed an unlikely lead before Murphy kicked the winning goal.

Fremantle forward Chris Mayne booted five goals.

Rookie-listed midfielder Michael Barlow was also outstanding for the Dockers, doing his chances of promotion to the senior list no harm by gathering 27 possessions.

Hale finished with three goals for the Kangaroos, who were best served by skipper Brent Harvey with 25 touches.

Fremantle now take on St Kilda in the semi-final at Etihad Stadium next Saturday night.

The Saints beat Sydney by a point in another quarter-final thriller at the weekend.

Port Adelaide will face the Western Bulldogs in the other semi on Friday night after both won their quarter-finals.

Port thumped West Coast by 78 points at Subiaco Oval, while a Barry Hall-inspired Bulldogs outfit hammered Hawthorn by 57 points at Etihad Stadium.

Hall booted six goals in his Dogs debut.

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The Crowd Says (11) | Page 1 of Comments

Redb said | March 1st 2010 @ 7:17am | Report comment

Ripping last quarter. With 26 secs to go it just shows that talls stay tall, at 7 foot in the old scale Sandilands thump of the ball forward from the kick in was what set up Hill for that miracle last gasp win.

Lot to like though about North’s new game style, Jack Ziebel a star in the making.

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Al said | March 1st 2010 @ 8:05am | Report comment

Ziebell looked hopeless in the first half, turned the ball over twice in the space of 30 seconds and gave away too many frees. Yeh he took a corageous mark in the last quarter but so what, way too much hype for someone who really hasn’t done that much. Stephen Hill practically won Fremantle the match with his run and carry and beautiful use of the ball and will be twice the player.

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- Redb said | March 1st 2010 @ 8:15am | Report comment
  
  so now your a Hill fan
  
  I only saw the last quarter and Ziebel looked impressive for a young kid. A lot of North fans I know have big wraps on him.
  
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  - Al said | March 1st 2010 @ 9:07am | Report comment
    
    Hill is a freak and from day one has been crapped on by everyone because he went ahead of the overrated and already peaked Rich who has nothing but a cannon for a leg and not much more. Hill also comes from working class stock whilst Rich is a bit of a fairy which makes HIll a winner in my books!
    
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Arky said | March 1st 2010 @ 8:54am | Report comment

Ziebell did have a poor first half, but recovered from it and was critical in North’s comeback, which is a good sign.

North was terrible for most of the game, their defence was utter garbage. Freo had a loose man in attack the entire 2nd half. Firrito actually saw Murphy run off on that last play (along with everyone at the ground) and just flapped his hands at other people to go chase (in fairness, he was manning someone else, but it would have been closer for him to chase Murphy and let someone else get back to cover his man, he was sideways from the play). Even worse, Murphy ran off the same way the previous play and everyone saw it then too, but the ball didn’t get past halfback before it went back for another point. I don’t know whether Scott had a huge hole in his defensive plan that went unaddressed, or the players just didn’t know where to run without Scott Thompson or Rawlings or McMahon directing traffic, but North just leaked goals all day through loose men in the forward 50. I don’t think I saw that happen once against Geelong.

Only good signs for North is the ferocious attack on the ball carrier was still there, with a LOT of smothers and strong tackling, Ed Lower put his hand up again for a senior spot, Warren good again, Hale had a much better game than against Geelong, Bastinac was OK on debut, Harvey got more into the game than he did when covered by Ling. Thomas looked OK in limited TOG in his first game back from injury. Anthony was good before being subbed at half time. That’s about it.

Marcus White was still clearly at VFL pace on debut (reminded me a lot of Greenwood’s debut last year, where he got badly pantsed in his first couple of games… Greenwood was 10 times better when he got back into the team later in the season, hopefully White learns just as well from this experience). Daniel Pratt looks shot as a first 22 player right now. Urquhart hasn’t come on at all from 2008. Tarrant is a long way off as a defender, clearly too inexperienced. Hansen’s development is worryingly slow- he looked good in the first 6 rounds last year, but his injury seemed to set him back to 2008 and he hasn’t improved over the offseason.

North does seem to lack depth among small defenders, without McMahon or Rawlings in the team there wasn’t a single player who rotated through those roles on Sunday who looked like first 22 material. Wells as a HBF this season is probably a good idea, and if I were them I’d keep Harding back there too.

In midfield I’d say Ross’ omission means he’s out of the mix for round 1, Garlett didn’t impress off the bench, Adams had an average game, Swallow doesn’t seem completely up to speed but is suffering for TOG in the guts as they’re naturally trying everyone and the kitchen sink in the centre during these games. At this stage you’d say Harvey, Swallow, Anthony, Ziebell, Lower and Campbell are the locks for North’s midfield.

Oh, and Aaron Edwards completely blew his chance to play round 1. Terrible.

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- Redb said | March 1st 2010 @ 9:55am | Report comment
  
  Agree, from what I saw of Edwards he looked all at sea.
  
  What do you think of Hale at FF?
  
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James said | March 1st 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment

I hope for Freo’s sake this is a real turning point and gives them a launching pad into this season. They need to something with this current crop of young talent.

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Michael C said | March 1st 2010 @ 10:01am | Report comment

I’d rather not talk about it……

ah, actually, kinda prefer to get back under the radar now – - and NAB Challenge matches are more fun, the kids can get onto the ground for a kick and all…..

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- BigAl said | March 1st 2010 @ 11:47am | Report comment
  
  What is that playing strip ?
  
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  - Redb said | March 1st 2010 @ 1:21pm | Report comment
    
    I beleive that would be the Danish jumper used in the International Cup.
    
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    - BigAl said | March 1st 2010 @ 3:40pm | Report comment
      
      Very good – eyecatching in a similar way to the Canadiens Ice Hockey strip ! – maybe the Swans could develop a jumper in the same veign.
      
      Reply