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Such an important match for the Fremantle Dockers coming up this afternoon as they hit the road and arrive to the MCG to take on the top of the table Collingwood. We’ll have live scores and commentary from the game from 1:45pm AEST
It’s seems from here on in, every game for the Dockers is do or die, especially when they hit the road.
Most pundits are expecting the Dockers to win four of their remaining five games at Patersons Stadium (the Derby against West Coast looks unlikely).
But that will only get them to 10 wins and in reality you need about 12 wins to make the finals in 2012.
So they need to steal two wins on the road to give them a chance. Will that be happening today? Well, it’s highly unlikely.
The front up against the top team of the competition right now – a team that is undefeated in ten and has gone about their business rather quietly, which is strange for a club that is so large.
What’s interesting is the Fremantle Dockers, not normally a good travelling team, has actually won three of their five games interstate in 2012. That includes a very good performance against Sydney in Round 2, but also a poor effort against Hawthorn in Launceston a month ago.
Matthew Pavlich has been playing a lone hand up forward, while the constant switching of players in the midfield isn’t really giving much stability to the team. Plus, there’s the injuries – Nat Fyfe is still out, Stephen Hill and Zac Dawson are a week off, and that jolly giant from Mount Barker Aaron Sandilands won’t play the rest of the season.
For Collingwood, they were expecting a tough time last week against the other WA team, West Coast. Boy, did they get that.
It was a match fitting of a Grand Final preview – it was tough, end to end footy that never let up.
Whether this means the Pies could be a little flat for this match is a possibility. However, there is enough talent in the side that they should get past the Dockers with relative ease today.
It’s great seeing Nathan Brown in that back line along with Harry O’Brien and Ben Reid, the midfield is warming up nicely with good performances of late from Dane Swan and Dale Thomas.
The forward line has been a little up and down in the last few weeks with a lot of focus on Travis Cloke and Chris Dawes. Cloke last week booted five – tick. Dawes kicked two behinds – cross. In fact, the Pies won with just four goal kickers last week. While that’s not a positive, it’s seems to be an aberration with the Pies generally sharing around goalkickers most of the season.
Meanwhile, Collingwood will also know in the back of their mind the Dockers aren’t a side that usually plays the full four quarters – it’s something that was very noticeable last week against Essendon when they failed to kick a goal in the final quarter and get run down by the Dons.
Collingwood will go in as heavy favourites for today’s game and rightfully so. A lot of interest will be surrounding the debut of Irishman Caolan Mooney – we’ll keep an eye on him throughout the match (likely to start as the sub)
Can Fremantle surprise everyone or will the script go to plan for the Pies? Join us from 1:45pm AEST for all the action from the MCG as Collingwood take on Fremantle.
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