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Bottom-placed Brisbane have dominated Fremantle to win by 57 points at the Gabba on Saturday evening, for just their second victory of the season.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Brisbane Lions 18.13.121
Fremantle Dockers 9.10.64
Both the Brisbane Lions and Fremantle Dockers will be keen to snap their respective slumps when they clash at The Gabba. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 4:35pm (AEST).
Heading into the main break up by 46 points in Round 1, it appeared Brisbane might finally be emerging from the mire they’ve been stuck in this decade.
They held on to win by two points in that clash, but since then it’s been nothing but pain and misery for the Lions.
Nine straight losses have sent the club spiralling towards yet another bottom four finish, and with only the first of those defeats coming at under five goals it’s been a largely unencouraging period.
The bye can be a springboard to a stronger second half, but Chris Fagan’s side are still some ways off being a competitive team in the AFL.
Fremantle on the other hand find themselves in the top eight after a horror four-win campaign a season ago.
But a poor fortnight of football and a miserable percentage of 81.4 has many questioning whether they’ll still be there when it counts.
A 100-point loss to Adelaide brought the Dockers back to earth with a thud after an encouraging run of six wins in seven games, before last week they succumbed Collingwood at home despite the Magpies suffering from an absurd injury toll.
If they struggle to get over the line here there’ll be even more doubters to deal with.
Fremantle have dominated this rivalry of late, winning the last nine clashes and not tasting defeat since Round 16, 2009. Brisbane had previously held the upper hand with 11 wins in their first 16 meetings.
Remarkably, more than half of the matches between these teams have been decided by more than 40 points.
Prediction
Neither of these sides look particularly likely to play finals in 2017, and while Fremantle’s record of 6-5 looks a bit misleading, Brisbane’s record of 1-9 unfortunately does not.
Interstate trips are always difficult, but the Dockers should be able to make light work of a team not playing for wins and losses.
Dockers by 41 points