The Fremantle Dockers have sent club legend Matthew Pavlich out a winner in his last game with a hard-fought 20-point victory over the Western Bulldogs at Domain Stadium.
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Despite a tough season, the Dockers finished it off with an impressive four quarter performance against a side that will be playing finals in a few weeks.
Impressively the Dockers led for the majority of the day as Michael Walters and Shane Yarran proved how dangerous they can be on the counter-attack.
Fittingly Pavlich managed to kick the 700th goal of his career early in the game and he continued on to put in a big game as he flew for a lot of marks and crashed a lot of packs.
It was back to the Dockers of old as they locked down the Bulldogs forwards and their half backs in Clancee Pearce and Garrick Ibbotson had great games.
The Bulldogs seemed to be playing catch-up footy all day as they struggled in the windy conditions at Domain Stadium.
Forward structure has been the big problem for the Bulldogs and it reared its head again as they managed just six goals for the entire game and just one point in the final stanza.
The Dockers completely locked the game down in the last quarter as the Bulldogs had no answers and could barely get past half way.
The Bulldogs will go back to the drawing board as they begin planning for another trip to Perth in two weeks time for an elimination final clash with the red hot West Coast Eagles.
While for the Dockers they will now look to begin building for 2017 and if certain pieces fall into place then they will bounce back quickly.
Final score
Fremantle Dockers 10.9.69
Western Bulldogs 6.13.49
The Roar’s AFL MVP votes
3 Garrick Ibbotson
This man was a standout across halfback all day with 29 disposals, 14 marks, two tackles and five rebound 50s.
2 Lachie Neale
Lachie Neale set the new record for most disposals by an individual in a minor round season as he tallied 36 disposals, one goal, and 10 clearances on the day.
1 Stephen Hill
Stephen Hill was at his silky smooth best today with 30 touches at 83% efficiency, one goal, one goal assist, three inside 50s and four rebound 50s.
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