Season 2004 is, of a sudden, all over. Chris Connolly's "window of opportunity" has, of a sudden, become a little narrower. The long listless Summer for Fremantle fans, of a sudden, has arrived.

Fremantle, in the eight for most of the season, failed to stay there in the crucial final week and finish a painful ninth, 1 game short of what was required, after losing to the Saints in a spirited, but ultimately fruitless effort. In Neesham's third year, a similar thing happened, his team falling short of the eight by one game after losing the last three. Drummies third year needs no introduction, and now so too, has Connolly's third year produced signifficant heart ache for the fans.

The Dockers trailed all night as the Saints would put the pressure on in the early part of each quarter, and then tire, making way for the fitter Dockers to finish each quarter with a flourish. It was during our periods of ascendancy which let us down however, failing to make the most of our forward thrusts with skill errors and minor scores. In most games this season, Fremantle have managed to keep their opponents to reasonable scores, but have been unable to kick a winning score themselves. It was again the case on Saturday night, only managing 12 goals on an night where the team controlled the game for long periods.

Medhurst was yet again a massive disappointment, ammassing 2 touches on his way to a scintillating 0 goals, 0 points. Simmonds failed to have much of an impact, though when he did get near it good things happened. Justin Longmuir spent a fair bit of time there but the delivery wasn't there. Farmer put his heart and soul into the enterprise for little reward. Exquisite skills were completely lacking in this Freo team, no pin point passes to leading forwards or perfect handballs to running receivers. When we looked on, a skill error would turn us right off.

It seems the Saints have very much leap frogged us in the development stakes. While players like Luke Ball, Nick Dal Santo, Riewoldt and Koschitcke play like wily veterans, our players of the same crop are still very much inconsistent.

Troy Cook was a pleasant addition to the team, throwing his weight around with reckless abandon and causing the Saints a few problems. McPharlin looked very underdone, but showed why we missed him so much in the crucial six weeks precious. Steven Dodd looks more of a likely type than his older brother Brad, and Thornton was again solid, proving the critics wrong and showing us he is far from being in palative care.

Well, once again our season ends after 22 rounds, and gives us plenty of time to consider whether this group of players are in fact any chance of ascending the mountain. The Dockers report card will be coming soon.

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