Fremantle secures finals double chance with eight-point win over Port Adelaide
FREMANTLE secured fourth spot on the AFL table, outlasting Port Adelaide by eight points in an enthralling contest at Patersons Stadium.
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FREMANTLE secured fourth spot on the AFL table, outlasting Port Adelaide by eight points in an enthralling contest at Patersons Stadium.
After a first-half of savage swings in momentum and endless lead changes, it was the team who had two less days to prepare who took control in the premiership quarter to seize the day.
There was as much relief as elation in the air as the Dockers finally sewed up their top-four finish, leaving it to the final round of the season to do it with an eight-point win over the Power, 16.9 (105) to 14.13 (97).
Having kicked nine consecutive goals to look safe midway through the last quarter, Fremantle had to withstand a late burst of five Power goals before celebrating.
It was a day of heroes for the Dockers — one brave, one unlikely and one who sent the purple army into a frenzy.
Michael Barlow had 27 possessions and six clearances after taking his place with a broken thumb.
Matt Taberner, picked up in the rookie draft, might have emerged as the second power forward the team has long craved with a monster first half.
And Hayden Ballantyne, who had gone missing in the first-half, hit back with four goals in the second.
When Port Adelaide led by a point at half-time, its biggest stars in Robbie Gray and Chad Wingard were firing.
But in an ominous sign, some of Freo’s key movers hadn’t got near it.
There only way to go was up for David Mundy and Ballantyne.
Uncharacteristically subdued with only six disposals and one clearance before half-time, Mundy doesn’t play a bad game and he wasn’t about to in one of the biggest matches of his 208-game career.
Along with Ballantyne, held to just one kick and three handballs in the first-half, and the key pair exploded in the third term as the Dockers finally got on top.
Fremantle’s top-four and premiership hopes were slipping away six minutes into the third quarter when Port opened up a two-goal lead on the back of Jay Schulz’s third goal and Hamish Hartlett’s second.
Yet the eerie silence around Patersons Stadium was replaced by a deafening ‘Freo’ chant just 10 minutes later as the Dockers hit a purple patch right when their season depended on it.
With Mundy finding his groove with four clearances for the term and Lachie Neale amassing 14 disposals for the quarter, the Dockers took charge.
Ballantyne sprung to life with two goals up forward as Fremantle added four goals in the space of seven minutes.
By the time the siren sounded to mark three-quarter time, the Dockers had piled on six unanswered goals to open up a 22-point lead.
Fremantle trailed at half-time after a cracking second quarter, with Taberner missing a gettable set shot after the siren that would have taken the lead.
It was about the only blemish from Taberner after an outstanding first-half performance, with the 21-year-old taking four contested marks, kicking two goals and setting up another for skipper Matthew Pavlich.
While the Pavlich-Taberner duo posed a threat to the Port defence, the visitors could have been further in front.
Coaches’ player of the year Gray lived up to his billing, but missed two easy chances in front of goal in the second term as the visitors threatened to take charge.
The Dockers had earlier looked the goods after Pavlich kicked his second seven minutes into the second stanza, before the Power kicked three consecutive majors to take the lead.
The platform for Port was some significant wins in key midfield duals. Veteran tagger Kane Cornes held Stephen Hill to just four touches in the first half while gathering 13 himself, with Mundy also well held.
The sight of skipper Pavlich in the centre square at the start of the second term told you Ross Lyon was worried about Port’s stoppage ability, after the Power had edged the Dockers 12-9 in he first quarter clearance battle.
BEST
Fremantle: Neale, Ballantyne, Ibbotson, Taberner, Walters, Barlow, Mundy.
Port Adelaide: Gray, Schulz, Hartlett, Cornes, Ebert, Wingard.
Umpires: Dean Margetts, Mathew Nicholls, Simon Meredith
Reports: Nil
Crowd: 38,209 at Patersons Stadium
VOTES
3- Neale
2- Gray
1- Ballantyne
Originally published as Fremantle secures finals double chance with eight-point win over Port Adelaide
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