Fremantle survived a spirited Geelong effort to win Sunday's game by 26 points in front of over 35,000 people at a very hot Subiaco.

The game began with 4 quick and relatively unchallenged Fremantle goals and it seemed that they may deliver their first schlacking.  To their credit, the Geelong cats fought back and set something of a trend for the match.  Freo would surge away and appear to be trying to bust the match open, only to be foiled by the young determined and extremely quick cats.

This trend continued up until the beginning of the last quarter when Geelong made their surge for victory and almost made it.  When Moloney goaled for the cats mid way through the last quarter, the difference was 2 points and Geelong was on a roll.

The Dockers of old probably would have rolled over and been beaten, but these Dockers of the 2004 Connolly variety are a different propositon to earlier teams.  They actually have a game plan and a belief in sticking to it no matter what the situation.

The whole team lifted and Symmonds, Schammer and the Wiz all kicked goals to make sure of victory.  Coach Connolly was quick to praise the gutsy cats after the game and so he should.  They're young, quick and on Sunday they showed they are not the worst team going around.

As for the Dockers performance, I think it's impossible for them not to have had one eye on next week.  The loss of Hayden was also a big loss with his sweeping runs from defence.  Schammer, Symmonds, Pavlich and Haselby were all outstanding in a solid all round performance.

Bring on the toast.

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