NAB Cup Match Report by William from the West

February 21, 201015 yr

A LONG, LONG WAY TO GO by William from the West

The game of football starts at the centre bounce where the two big ruckmen vie against each other to get the ball down to their on ball players who, in turn, attempt to move the ball forward to their team's advantage. It goes without saying that when one team establishes superiority and wins consistently at these stoppages it moves a long way towards winning the game. That's what happened yesterday evening at Subiaco where Fremantle established its dominance from the very beginning against a substandard, inexperienced opposition in Melbourne and literally toyed with it throughout the game to record a comfortable 47 point win.

The Demons brought a young side across the Nullarbor and pitted rookie ruckman Jake Spencer against seasoned two time All Australian Aaron Sandilands. The young Demon tall toiled hard till he suffered a hip injury in the third quarter but was monstered by the 211cm behemoth. At their feet, the Fremantle players took advantage of this dominance and the fact that the Demon midfield was poorly set up at many contests. As a consequence, they were often allowed easy passages out of the packs and accordingly put the Melbourne defence under pressure for most of the proceedings. In general play, the Demons fumbled, dropped marks, made poor decisions and showed the same lack of skills that has been evident for the past two or three years.

The writing was on the wall early in the game when Melbourne had two opportunities up forward in the opening minutes and failed to register a score. At about the four minute mark Brent Moloney had the ball on a wing and, seeing only contests further afield, elected to kick backwards to Jamie Bennell. The kick was astray and rolled harmlessly away from Bennell's outstretched hands and out of bounds for a net loss of forty metres. You could already see the first sign of confidence slipping and within minutes the home side started putting the score on the board, helped by a couple of fifty metre penalties, each of which stopped the momentum of a Demon forward drive dead in its tracks. The experienced players of Freo then led the way and their younger brigade lifted in response.

Melbourne mounted a rearguard effort in the second quarter and performed much better. Brad Green who was quiet early lifted the side with a supergoal and that was followed by another from Aaron Davey who was rarely sighted and subbed off at half time. The gap should have been narrowed further when Liam Jurrah, who was having a dog of game, accepted a pass and uncharacteristically missed. Fremantle's dominance was restored by a questionable after the siren nine pointer that knocked the stuffing out of the visitors. The Dockers dominated most of the second half. They were able to score as needed while the Demon forward line was non-existent.

Were there any positives? Well, a few players worked hard and showed some value - James Frawley, Nathan Jones, James McDonald and Brisbane discard Joel Macdonald. Youngsters in Tom Scully, Jack Trengove and James Strauss all showed glimpses of a far away future and Jordie McKenzie was good when he came on after half time.

And that was about it. The Demons came a long way across the Nullarbor. They have a long, long way to go.

FREMANTLE 0.4.4 1.6.6 1.10.9 1.13.10 (97)

MELBOURNE 0.0.2 2.1.3 2.2.5 2.4.8 (50)

Goals

Fremantle: Pearce (nine pointer), Johnson, Pavlich 3, Headland, Ballantyne 2, Sandilands, Mayne, Pearce.

Melbourne: Davey, Green (nine pointers), Miller 2, Morton, Petterd.

Best

Fremantle: Barlow, Ballantyne, Hayden, Mundy, Duffield, Pearce.

Melbourne: Frawley, Jones, Macdonald, McDonald.

Injuries: Fremantle: B Schammer (ankle), A McPhee (ankle), K Bradley (hip).

Melbourne: J Spencer (corked hip).

Crowd: 11,031 at Subiaco Oval.