Fremantle v Sydney: Dockers escape Swans in one-point thriller
An emboldened Ross Lyon fired back at those questioning his position as coach of Fremantle after he dodged a bullet with a thrilling one-point victory against Sydney.
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An emboldened Ross Lyon fired back at those questioning his position as coach of Fremantle after he dodged a bullet with a thrilling one-point victory against Sydney at Optus Stadium last night.
The 8-9 Dockers jumped to 10th on the ladder after snapping their four-game losing streak in front of 33,594 fans, their smallest home crowd of the season.
The scrappy win means Fremantle have now matched their tally of eight wins from the past two seasons.
Lyon took a swipe at the pressure that has mounted in recent weeks, which has included the Dockers’ own members and fans contacting the club and using radio and online avenues to call for change.
“There’s plenty of upside here. And we’re three-and-a-half years in (to the rebuild). I’m not sure what all the hoopla’s about, to be honest,” Lyon said.
“But that’s just the town we live in. I understand we’re a two-team town. I understand the scrutiny. We’ve got that many content providers and not many people to provide the content.
“We’d done so much right. Interstate wins against top-four clubs – GWS and Collingwood. Beat top-four, top-six clubs at home.
“And then we ran into some problems. We’re a young, developing list. We’re not a deep list and there’s some challenges that go with that.
“So if people want to pile on, that’s the business. That’s what we sign up for. But it doesn’t wobble my intent and our coaches’ intent and our players’ intent. We’re a pretty happy camp.”
Ruckman-forward Rory Lobb ended the game with a shoulder injury but Lyon said he was likely to take his place against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium next Sunday.
Captain Nat Fyfe was released from hospital on Friday night after battling an elbow infection and watched the game from home.
“He was really quite an ill boy with an infection. He went south really quickly,” Lyon said.
“We think Nathan will more than likely get up, but not a guarantee for next week. But it would be great if we could add him back in.”
It was a desperate, frenzied scrap that was engrossing in its own way, so it was fitting it took until the dying seconds for it to be settled in the same manner.
Fremantle had to survive a throw-in and a ball-up deep in defence in the final 30 seconds to prevail by one point, 7.10 (52) to 7.9 (51), over Sydney at Optus Stadium on Friday night.
A point down with two minutes on the clock, behinds from Andrew Brayshaw and Ed Langdon were enough for Fremantle as it halted its four-match losing run and injected some pride back into the purple army.
Stand-in captain David Mundy was immense with 24 touches and a game-high 11 clearances on his 34th birthday.
Fremantle dominated the clearances 45-23 and the contested ball count 157-127 on the back of their unorthodox three ruckmen strategy.
Each of Aaron Sandilands, who had a role in several goals, Sean Darcy (17 disposals and seven clearances) and Rory Lobb (three goals) proved their worth and had an influence.
Fielding three 2m-plus giants in the slippery conditions required some juggling, with Sandilands spending plenty of time forward after taking the opening ruck tap.
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Having been on the back foot early, the home side created plenty of chances in front of goal in the second stanza only to be let down by set shot misses from Mundy and Brandon Matera and a poor choice from Bradley Hill, who blazed away and misses when Sandilands was well clear.
A fine sole effort from Lobb resulted in an important goal just before halftime, crumbing his own spilt mark and kicking truly to break a run of four majors from the visitors.
The Dockers got the impetus they wanted out of the middle as their ruck trio overwhelmed undersized debutant Hayden McLean to help drive a big advantage in the contested ball count.
Yet they trailed where it mattered despite dominating the hitouts (29-11) and clearances (25-15) in the first half, with the slick Swans doing their damage on the outside as they gathered 35 more uncontested possessions.
Fremantle’s control at the coalface began to tell in the third, with the Dockers getting three goals to none to change the complexion of the match.
Lobb continued what he started before the break, getting the first two goals of the third term to haul his side level.
The ruckman-forward got another opportunistic goal when he gathered a smother and roosted home his second from outside 50 and followed it up with a strong contested mark in the goalsquare.
When Matera joined in with his first from deep in the pocket, the Dockers were in front and the small forward had Sandilands to thank.
The veteran ruck giant used needed all of his 211cm frame plus his outstretched arms and fingertips to create a comical but effective turnover in the middle of the ground.
Lyon admitted it was a gamble to play three ruckmen in Aaron Sandilands, Sean Darcy and Rory Lobb. Each of them played a key role as the Dockers recorded whopping wins in clearances (45-23) and contested possessions (157-127).
“You’re paid to take some chances, so it was a calculated risk,” he said.
“They had mobility and we had clearance dominance probably around hit-outs. But it still could have gone either way.
“I thought it was a really strong will to win. I thought we fought it out to the end, but some of the basics we’d like to be better in.
“Any win is hard-fought in the AFL. We certainly picked a different team tonight. We identified over the last month we lost a little bit of game style with penetration going in to our forwards. So we needed to pick a taller forward line because we lost (Jesse) Hogan, (Matt) Taberner and (Brennan) Cox out of our front half.”
SCOREBOARD
FREMANTLE 1.1 3.6 6.7 7.10 (52)
d
SYDNEY 1.4 5.4 5.6 7.9 (51)
GOALS
Dockers: Lobb 3, B. Hill, Conca, Matera, Walters
Swans: Reid 3, Parker, Papley, Fox, Blakey
BRADEN QUARTERMAINE’S BEST
Dockers: Mundy, Hamling, Conca, Lobb, Ryan, Brayshaw.
Swans: Lloyd, Parker, Hewett, Reid, Heeney, Rampe
VOTES
3 — David Mundy (FRE)
2 — Jake Lloyd (SYD)
1 — Joel Hamling (FRE)
INJURIES
Dockers: Lobb (arm)
Swans: TBC
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Brett Rosebury, Hayden Gavine, David Harris
Official crowd: 33,594 at Optus Stadium
Originally published as Fremantle v Sydney: Dockers escape Swans in one-point thriller
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