Fremantle home crowd joins together for ‘beautiful’ moment during match against Geelong

In the top-eight clash between Geelong and Fremantle, the Perth home crowd showed its class by joining together in the first quarter.

Fremantle fans paid tribute to late super fan Milli Lucas during Thursday night’s top-eight clash with Geelong.

In the 14th minute of the first quarter, the crowd at Optus Stadium rose to its feet and applauded in memory of 14-year-old Milli, who lost her battle with cancer in January.

AFL pundits praised the “beautiful” gesture on social media.

Plenty of doom and gloom about today, but that standing ovation for Milli Lucas shows why sport is the best #AFLFreoCats 😢

— Tim Warburton (@strawburton) July 15, 2021

The crowd standing to applaud at the 14-minute mark of the game. God I loved that. More of those sort of moments. @freodockers#milli#AFLFreoCatshttps://t.co/CJpWvmb208

— Leachy (Daniel Leach) 📻🎙🎧 (@TheSportsFreak) July 15, 2021

Beautiful. #AFLFreoCats

— Alex Fair (@AJFair85) July 15, 2021

“This stadium, as the applause goes on, was her happy place. As a Fremantle supporter, this was where she’d like to come, where she could smile,” commentator Brian Taylor said.

Thursday night’s game was the 19th annual Starlight Purple Haze Game, during which the Dockers raise funds for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

The Dockers players themselves commemorated Milli by wearing special Milli Tribute Jumpers, designed by Milli’s two siblings.

“For the club, what they’ve done for us has been incredible. We don’t even know where to start for the gratitude and the thanks,” Milli’s mother Monica Lucas said during the week.

“When we were asked if our family could design a Milli jumper, we thought it was incredible as it shows that you’re not forgetting about our baby.

“For us, it’s incredible that the Fremantle Dockers are keeping Milli alive. It helps us grieve as her legacy is living on.”

For Milli Lucas 💜#AFLFreoCatspic.twitter.com/pxgN596Amc

— AFL (@AFL) July 15, 2021

Geelong continues to pile the pressure on the other sides eying off a top-four finish.

The Cats moved to the top of the AFL ladder with a 69–point win over Fremantle at Optus Stadium on Thursday night.

They started the game exactly five per cent behind top-placed Melbourne, but mauled the Dockers, making light of the wet conditions.

The lopsided 14.16 (100) to 3.13 (31) scoreline saw the Cats leapfrog the Demons with an advantage of 0.4 per cent.

The Cats dominated the Dockers, who were on their home ground where they seldom lose, and who had won three of their past four games to sneak into the top eight.

Just when they were showing signs of improvement, they sunk to their biggest defeat under coach Justin Longmuir.

With the AFL on the brink of moving back into hubs, getting a good win on the road could not have come at a better time for the Cats.

They have posted four losses this season, three of them outside of Victoria, at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval and SCG.

The Cats are currently scheduled to play Richmond at the MCG next Sunday, while Fremantle is hopeful of moving its Saturday clash with Sydney from Geelong to Perth.

Finding those goals

Geelong’s first goal of the night was also its 200th for the season.

The Cats became only the sixth side to reach that milestone this season, joining the Western Bulldogs (219), Brisbane (212), Sydney (203), Port Adelaide (200) and Essendon (206), the only one of those sides currently outside of the top eight.

Going into the game, there were concerns that the Cats would struggle to find avenues to goal with Jeremy Cameron and Gary Rohan sidelined.

But they still managed, finding nine goal scorers, taking 16 marks inside their attacking 50.

Tom Hawkins booted four goals and Patrick Dangerfield three, although he could have kicked a bag.

The Dockers need to clean up their attack if they want to challenge. They went into the game with only 175 goals for the season.

They are getting shots on goal, usually, but this was also the 12th game this season when they have kicked more behinds than goals.

And they have now lost eight of those 12 games, with a combined scoreboard of 75.106.

The Cats had won just once at Optus Stadium before Thursday night. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Cats on a roll

As some of the expected contenders continue to struggle, especially after the bye, Geelong has now won nine of its past 10 games.

The Cats are starting games with intent, trailing only once at half-time in their past eight games, that was in their Round 15 loss to Brisbane.

On the flip-side, Fremantle continue to do it tough against teams that remain in the mix to finish in the top eight.

The Dockers have beaten only Greater Western Sydney and Sydney, losing to Melbourne, West Coast, Brisbane, Essendon, Port Adelaide, the Western Bulldogs and now Geelong.

They have had poor starts in most of those games, winning the first term only once in those nine games, against the Giants.

They were lucky to be only 14 points down at the break on Thursday night.

Geelong got a lot more of the ball in the first term and finished with 123 more possessions.

The Dockers’ only goal for the term came from a free kick when Mark Blicavs too obviously walked the ball across the boundary line.

Andrew Brayshaw slotted it through from the boundary more than 24 minutes into the term. They didn’t get one in either the second or fourth terms.

Darcy (L) was the Dockers’ brightest spark on a dark night but a knee injury cut his game short. (Photo by Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Dockers big man future

Fremantle ruckman Sean Darcy signed a two-year contract extension during the week, ending speculation he may head to Melbourne after this season.

He celebrated with a terrific game, before he was forced out of the game with a knee injury.

He led all possession getters for most of the first half.

He showed all potential suitors, including Geelong, what they have missed out on, for now at least.

But Fremantle was unable to finish off his good work, including the big man himself, who failed to score from two shots on goal within 50m, both within minutes of each other midway through the second term.

Hawkins made them pay, with two goals of his own in the following two minutes to open up a 32-point lead for the Cats.

The Dockers, with 1.7 on the board at half-time, trailed by 43 points, their biggest deficit at the main break this season – just a week after scoring 100 points (against Hawthorn) for the first time this season.

Goal scoring was never going to be easy for the Dockers in the second half, with key forward Rory Lobb subbed out at the break with an ankle injury.

DOCKERS 1.3 1.7 3.10 3.13 31

CATS 3.5 8.8 11.12 14.16 100

ELBOROUGH’S BEST Dockers: Darcy, Brayshaw, Ryan, Fyfe, Wilson. Cats: Menegola, Gutherie, Dangerfield, Dahlhaus, Tuohy, Hawkins.

GOALS Dockers: Brayshaw, Colyer, Walters. Cats: Hawkins 4; Dangerfield 3; Close, Dahlhaus, Menegola, Miers, Narkle, Ratugolea, Selwood.

INJURIES Dockers: Lobb (ankle, replaced by Walker), Darcy (knee), Fyfe (shoulder), Acres (leg). Cats: Nil.

UMPIRES Chamberlain, Findlay, Gianfagna.

VENUE Optus Stadium

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

BRAD ELBOROUGH’S VOTES

3 Menegola (CATS)

2 Gutherie (CATS)

1 Dangerfield (CATS)