Barking Dockers 2004

Healthy Fortnight Revitalises Season

 

 Match Wrap by Andrew Lacy

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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