Gold Coast secure third win on the trot as Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe suffers hamstring injury
Fremantle skipper Nat Fyfe will face a race against time to be fit for the club’s Round 7 western derby after suffering a hamstring injury during against Gold Coast on Saturday night.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Dual Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe will stay in Queensland’s AFL hub despite injuring his right hamstring in Fremantle’s 13-point loss to Gold Coast on Saturday.
Fyfe is set to undergo scans in coming days after he limped off in the third quarter of the defeat at Metricon Stadium.
Dockers coach Justin Longmuir was hopeful the injury wasn’t too serious, with club medical staff initially diagnosing a low-grade hamstring strain but it seems certain he won’t feature in either of the Dockers’ last two games of their Gold Coast stay.
The Dockers are now 0-4 in 2020 and have matches against Adelaide and Melbourne to come in the Queensland hub before heading home to Perth for their round-seven Derby against West Coast at Optus Stadium.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Longmuir, though, said Fyfe staying in the hub would be the best option for the 28-year-old.
“All of our medical staff are here. The best thing is for them to remain here,” Longmuir said.
“We’ve got access to everything we need here.
“And we just don’t have the resources back home to put around players so everyone will stay in the hub.” Having been smashed in the ruck by Suns co-captain Jarrod Witts, Longmuir said he would have to consider bringing Sean Darcy back into his team for next week’s match against Adelaide.
“Sean was touch and go this week and we decided just to give him a week in the reserves just to get his fitness up, but he will come under consideration,” Longmuir said, adding the Dockers needed to find a winning formula soon after their poor start to the season.
“It’s about building his fitness and resilience to be able to stay and play week-in, week-out ... he’s been close the last couple of weeks.”
Justin Longmuir addresses the media - Nat Fyfe felt some tightness in his hamstring. Hopefully it’s a low grade strain. He’ll get scans tomorrow #foreverfreo
— Fremantle Dockers (@freodockers) June 27, 2020
MATCH REPORT: YOUNG GUN ROWELL LEADS SUNS TO VICTORY
It should have been mission impossible and in the end it was.
Fremantle entered last night yet to win a game, were playing interstate for the third week in a row, matched up against one of the AFL’s in-form teams and were missing a host of key players to injury, including their two best key defenders.
Then, they lost their captain and dual Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe during the game.
Fremantle had a debutant, and a third gamer and multiple players on the comeback trail from injury, while their coach was in his fourth match and still implementing his game plan.
Teams simply don’t win in those situations and despite battling manfully, Fremantle couldn’t overcome the odds and lost to Gold Coast 10.4 (64) to 8.3 (51)
The Suns dominated field position. They more than doubled Fremantle’s inside 50 tally in the first half after more than doubling them in clearances too.
But Fremantle trailed by only six points at the time. They were prepared to fight.
Fyfe helped the Dockers to level the scores with a brilliant smother early in the third quarter that helped Michael Walters to kick the goal.
But when Fyfe went off, they needed everything to go right and that rarely happens.
Little moments become big moments when you’re fighting against the odds. Ethan Hughes slipped over early in the final term to give Jack Lukosius a chance to have a shot from near the boundary. Converting seemed improbable. That was until he made the ball talk and put Gold Coast seven points up. It was a cruel blow.
Matt Rowell is must-watch every week! #AFLSunsFreo pic.twitter.com/5TplUgnatP
— AFL (@AFL) June 27, 2020
The Suns kept pumping the ball forward and Ben Ainsworth made it a 13-point game.
Fremantle surged late but couldn’t kick goals.
James Aish had the chance to reduce the deficit to eight points with less than five minutes remaining but missed. They desperately needed that moment to go their way.
Then Matt Taberner fell over while reaching for a Lachie Schulz pass.
In contrast, the Suns changed the game during the second quarter when they kicked five unanswered goals in an 11-minute burst. Gold Coast’s skills were on show during that blast.
Alex Sexton weighted the ball perfectly to put Ben King into space behind Fremantle’s defence, Touk Miller then hit King again with a superb pass and moments later, Jack Bowes did the same thing for Sam Day.
The home team had the polish when it was needed.
Matt Rowell continued his brilliant start to his career. He had six disposals in the first six minutes and had beat Nat Fyfe in two contests along the way. The number one draft pick didn’t slow down either.
He finished with 20 disposals, seven clearances and two goals.
Impressive Young
Fremantle fans would have jumped off their couches after seeing Hayden Young’s effort during the first quarter. Pitted against Matt Rowell, Young showed class to gather a bobbling footy to won the ground ball contest, fired off a handball to Andrew Brayshaw and then got it straight back before nailing a perfect left foot pass inside 50 to Michael Walters. That moment showed why the Dockers picked him with their first selection in last year’s national draft.
Hayden Young is going to be a serious player!#AFLSunsFreo pic.twitter.com/dklw3z4MtM
— AFL (@AFL) June 27, 2020
Over the top
The Suns had every reason to feel good about themselves but the danger is that players will get too confident. Fremantle’s first goal came after a 50m penalty for umpire abuse, then they gave away another 50m penalty for a late bump after Ethan Hughes took a mark. When Darcy Macpherson got into Stephen Hill’s face after winning a free kick for holding the ball, it was clear the Suns were trying to assert themselves. But Macpherson kicked into Hill on the mark. There’s a difference between confident and cocky.
Making History
For the first time in VFL/AFL history, a game was played where no behinds were scored in the first half. The accuracy was outstanding with snaps mixed with set shots. It looked like a behind was going to be scored during the second quarter when the Dockers rushed a point for Gold Coast, but the umpire deemed Reece Conca had illegally held Alex Sexton and he converted the free kick. Sam Day hit the post for the Suns in the early minutes of the third quarter to end the streak.
Fines Galore
Players sacrificed money as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown and players from both clubs will be giving the league some cash this week after a half-time melee. Matt Taberner had his jumper torn to shreds, ex-Docker Sam Collins was prominent, Caleb Serong was into it, Pearce Hanley had a real scrap and Luke Ryan just kept confronting blokes. The fight looked ready to stop several times but spot fire just kept starting up again.
Suns recruit Hugh Greenwood, who was embroiled in a Twitter spat with Mark Ricciuto last week, cheekily said the Dockers are “sick” of the Gold Coast hub.
“Fremantle boys are clearly getting a bit sick of the hub so they’re fired up,” Greenwood said with a smile at halftime.
GOLD COAST 2.0 7.0 8.2 10.4 (64)
FREMANTLE 3.0 6.0 8.2 8.3 (51)
GOALS
Gold Coast: King 2, Sexton 2, Rowell 2, Ainsworth 2, Day, Lukosius
Fremantle: Walters 2, Bewley 2, Schultz, Taberner, Matera, Tucker
BEST
Gold Coast: M Rowell, T Miller, J Witts, J Bowes, B Ellis, J Lukosius
Fremantle: H Young, D Tucker, M Walters, M Taberner, J Hogan, D Mundy
VOTES
3 M Rowell (GC)
2 T Miller (GC)
1 J Witts (GC)