‘Outstanding’ Fremantle Dockers pile on Collingwood’s horror week

The Collingwood Magpies somewhat self-inflicted bad week has gotten a lot worse after one of the biggest upsets of the AFL season in Perth.

It’s a bad finish to a bad week for the Magpies.

The Fremantle Dockers have added to the Collingwood Magpies’ woes with the club’s third win of the season to keep the Victorians out of the top eight.

A win would have seen the Magpies move into fifth or sixth depending on percentage, but the straight-kicking Dockers took a 10.1 (61) to 7.7 (49) win to move to 16th on the AFL ladder

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Magpies president Eddie McGuire was made to look foolish after teeing off on AFL WAGs breaking COVID restrictions when, less than 24 hours later, coach Nathan Buckley and assistant coach Brenton Sanderson played a tennis match with two people in Perth including former tennis star Alicia Molik.

And coming after a 66-point loss to the West Coast Eagles last week, the Pies appeared ready to make a statement, with Buckley dropping four players for the clash against Fremantle.

It’s not like Fremantle were on fire either, having scored just 16 points, narrowly avoiding the club’s lowest ever total against Geelong on Monday night.

Entering the match, the Dockers were in a goal drought after kicking just three goals in their last seven quarters of footy.

Another scoreless first quarter had Fremantle potentially facing a long night. Luckily for Fremantle, it was a low-scoring game with 14 minutes before the first point when Collingwood’s Brayden Sier got the goals started.

But the side turned it around in the second quarter with four goals to snatch the lead at the main break.

The Dockers celebrate a big win at Optus Stadium.

The Dockers were held scoreless in the first term, but Matt Tabener booted the Dockers onto the board early in the second as he and Lachie Schultz booted two each in a late burst to hit the lead 4.1 (25) to 2.4 (16).

Schultz kicked a pearler, grubbering a ball along ground from 40m out and curling it through the posts which brought the Dockers back into the game and sparked a resurgence with two more goals to finish the quarter.

The third quarter looked to be Fremantle’s as the Dockers opened a 14-point lead but the Magpies suddenly hit back with three goals in the final six minutes of the quarter to snatch the three-quarter time lead 6.5 (41) to 6.1 (37).

In a game full of twists and turns, the Dockers came out of the break and booted two goals as Mitch Crowden kicked a goal, bumping out of two tackles and putting it through with Fox Footy commentator Dwayne Russell saying “that’s epic; that’s the goal of his life”.

Tabener then kicked his third and fourth goals to open up a commanding lead.

Despite the Pies coming back to within a goal late in the game, David Mundy celebrated the win with a goal after the siren.

Not a good week from the Pies.

AFL Live Scores: Round 9 match centres

While there were plenty of fans ready to pile the praise on the Dockers, the Pies also copped a few kicks especially after Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced a “state of emergency” in Victoria with six weeks of stage four lockdown.

This includes a curfew between 8pm and 5am, exercise restrictions, non-essential businesses forced to close, schools and universities returning to at-home learning and wedding bans among other restrictions.

Nine Radio broadcaster Shane McInnes tweeted “Collingwood lose this, and it won’t just be Victoria declaring a ‘state of disaster’ today,” while 10’s Tim Bailey wrote. “Not to trivialise for one moment. But Victoria needed a bit of good news — Freo are in front of Collingwood.”

But for Fremantle, it was all good news as side got plenty of praise.

Outstanding from Fremantle.

Outstanding. #AFLFreoPies

— Shane McInnes (@shanemcinnes) August 2, 2020

Stirring. Inspirational. Gutsy. Courageous. Impossible to offer too many superlatives. @freodockers #foreverfreo #AFLFreoPies

— Sam Tomlin (@SamTomlin539) August 2, 2020

Well that turned out to be a better game than expected - in more ways than one ⚓️ @freodockers #AFLFreoPies #foreverfreo

— Rove McManus (@Rove) August 2, 2020

Some pretty good footy occasionally also.#AFLFreoPies https://t.co/afVhegDzm4

— Garrett Mundy (@GarrettIvo) August 2, 2020

Collingwood have a chance to return to the winner’s circle against the 17th ranked Swans at the Gabba on Thursday evening, while Fremantle will welcome a bye round 10.