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The Dockers have completed a healthy fortnight, winning
two matches to revitalise their season and to all but ensure
a place in September action this year. It began in
Adelaide, where the Dockers overcame a stirred up Crows
outfit at their home ground. It was a pulsating game, with
both teams having periods with the ascendancy, only to have
the other team claw its way back. For the Crows, the usual
suspects were prominent, Ricciuto, McLeod and Tyson Edwards
all had good matches. For the Dockers, Byron Schammer had 30
touches, Paul Haselby 26, and Troy Simmonds combined well
with Justin Longmuir all night long. It was the first time
the Dockers had won against the Crows in South Australia,
having only beaten the Power their a few years ago. Even
better, Essendon, The Kangaroos and Sydney all lost,
allowing Freo to reclaim 6th position after being out of the
eight for a week. Farmer was booked for kneeing a Crow to
the head, and the media, especially in the Eastern States,
were convinced of his guilt and openly said so. Turns out
that most of them didn't actually watch the game, because
the incident was clearly bereft of any reckless or malicious
activity. Rightly, the tribunal saw the incident for what it
was and acquitted Farmer. The next game was the crucial "8
point" match against top eight rivals the Sydney Swans.
Losing another precious home four points would have been
catastrophic to the Dockers chances, letting the Swans and
Geelong leap frog them with points clear ahead of them,
leaving a dog fight for the final two places between
Essendon, Fremantle, West Coast and the Kangaroos. The
Dockers largely held sway all day, with Schammer again
influential, along with Bell, Walker, Longmuir, McManus and
Farmer, who booted an excellent 5 goals - his best return as
a Docker. Haddrill also did well on the dangerous Barry
Hall, who only kicked three and grew so frustrated he gave
away several free kicks, two fifty metre penalties and was
dragged in the final quarter much to the delight of a
standing Fremantle crowd. At one point an angry Hall even
threw the phone down in disgust as the Sydney coaching staff
attempted to calm him down. While the margin could have
been greater - at one point the margin was over 50 points, a
27 point victory was a well deserved result against a top
eight rival. Troy Simmonds was cleaned up by Polak,
completely knocking the Snake out. The incident was not
overly serious, and with luck Simmonds will be able to play
next week against Carlton at Optus Oval. Bring on the
Poos.
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