THE POOR HOUSE by Ruby Tuesday

[Demonland 71,868]

How could they possibly have lost this one?

At quarter time, they held a lead of 1.5.11 to their opponent’s score of nothing. The Dockers had barely gone into attack and certainly not once had they gone inside 50 to the Demons’ 15 entries. It had all of the hallmarks of a rout except for a litany of wasted opportunities that saw Tegan Cunningham as the only goal kicker, scored at the seven-minute mark. It was not only the five behinds but a few other potential goals missed the sticks altogether or failed to make the distance.

The game should have been sewn up, such was Melbourne’s dominance. They were playing like careless millionaires who had no regard for their money and when you take such a course, you need to watch out because you could well end up in the poor house.

So despite Daisy Pearce’s complete dominance (she had 15 disposals by the half time break), the Dees lapsed a couple of times in the second quarter to let the home side in for two goals to hold a slender one point lead at the halfway mark.

Things got worse after the break when Fremantle opened up with another two goals to lead by 13 points less than four minutes into the second half.

Just when we thought it was all over, the Demons hit back hard with goals to Aliesha Newman, Cunningham (who kicked her second) and Karen Paxman. The lead at the last change was a single goal but Melbourne had all of the momentum. Surely they would get up and win to take top spot on the AFLW ladder?

No.

The Dockers kicked the only two goals for the final quarter and the last roll of the dice for the Demons, yielded yet another minor score and poverty for the frustrated Demons who missed out on their quest for top place.

Melbourne  1.5.11 1.5.11 4.6.30 4.7.31

Fremantle 0.0.0 2.0.12 4.0.24 6.0.36

Goals

Melbourne Cunningham 2 Newman Paxman.

Fremantle McGuire 2 Lavell Antonio Webb Caulfield.

Best

Melbourne Pearce Cunningham Paxman O’Dea Hickey

Fremantle Donnellan Webb Gooch Antonio Filocamo McGuire

Injuries

Melbourne C Phillips (ankle)

Fremantle Nil

Reports Nil

Umpires J Howorth D Johansen A Heffernan

Official crowd 3,125 at Fremantle Oval