The Fremantle Dockers have won their third game of the season, after beating the GWS Giants by 34 points in a tight contest.
Both the Dockers and the Giants are sides looking to scrape into the top eight this year, with Fremantle wanting to make the finals for the first time since 2015, and the Giants looking to better their semi-finals appearance last year.
The game started off incredibly close, with the biggest margin in the first half being just 11 points. The Dockers’ poor accuracy meant that Jesse Hogan and Harry Himmelberg kept the home side in it, kicking two goals apiece.
Six points separated the two teams at half time, and just two points separated the two teams at three-quarter time.
Ten minutes into the final quarter, the score was 52-51 in favour of the Dockers, and it was looking like it was going to be a thrilling finish.
(Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
The final 20 minutes of the game had a scoreline of 36-3 in favour of the home side, with the Dockers pulling ahead to win in convincing fashion.
The victory meant a lot to the home side, who sported their Starlight jerseys for the children’s foundation and black arm bands for Nathan O’Driscoll’s late grandmother.
O’Driscoll was able to nab two goals for the game, and an impressive 20 disposals in a standout performance.
Will Brodie got a career-high 37 disposals for the winning side, with the best on ground for GWS being Tim Taranto, with an impressive 32 disposals.
The Dockers, who were the minor premiers in 2015, have been in a hole for several years now. But the slowly improving side has started the year 3-1, and sit third on the ladder with three games still yet to be played this round.
GWS are looking to improve on their 2021, but have started off with a 1-3 performance. Their only win came against Gold Coast, and they had losses to Fremantle, Richmond and Sydney.
The rest of the Round 4 action kicks off this afternoon, with Essendon taking on Adelaide at home.
Marty
Roar Rookie
Very pleasing to see us take control when the game was up for grabs. There’s some talent amongst the youngsters that’s for sure. Excellent response by Logue to being dropped last week. Also great to see avenues to goal that don’t involve Tabs, he was irrelevant last night. Still issues with basic skill errors but if we can keep beating the teams around our level then we are definitely moving in the right direction.
Andrew
Guest
GWS are the most ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ team in the league - look great one week and rubbish the next. No wonder they can only get 4000 crowds to their games.
Dibbs
Roar Rookie
I think I'm in agreement with a lot of other comments. Dockers aren't looking like a top 3 side, but they're getting the points, and there's plenty to like. Looking at the fixtue, the season seems to get progressively harder, which should be an advantage if they can keep building on what they're doing, and hopefully iron out the skill errors.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
A winning habit is a good habit, and whilst I don't think we've absolutely set the world alight this season we are winning games of footy and our last two weeks in particular have been pretty good. What is clear is that our young players are very good. Heath Chapman looks set to become an absolute star, O'Driscoll looks a player, Erasmus is only going to get better, Will Brodie is only 23 and his cards were already marked by Gold Coast and yet is a Micheal Barlow esque ball magnet. Brayshaw should be made the captain asap, and probably the best youngster of the lot; Serong wasn't even playing last night. Throw in Johnson, Amiss and Sturt to come later in the year, this is the way forward.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
i have watched freo this year. Plenty of mistakes, but they are winning and should get better as year progresses