This match was perhaps the worst and least deserving win in Fremantle's short history, with the Dockers overcoming a truly insipid Adelaide team who couldn't kick a goal to save their lives. That the Dockers were still in it at half time was a miracle, as the "House of Pain" grew to Biblical proportions as the Crow's goal posts seemed to widen with every shot - leading to about 6 behinds that hit the post for the heartbroken visitors.

Adelaide had doubled Freo's scoring shots by half time (14 to 7), and yet were only 12 points up at the main break. To see 44 young, fit, strong men all play with such a lack of confidence and skill proved painful to watch, as each side graciously took turns making fundamental errors that even an epileptic leper wouldn't perpetrate.

"The Passion of the Chris" Connolly said after the game that sometimes you have to win ugly. But there's ugly and then there's UGLY. Normal ugly is your run of the mill paper bag job, yesterday was smelly, warty, chafing in the general vicinity, burn at the stake type ugly and as such the 32,000 strong crowd were getting out their pitchforks and torches as the Dockers persistently refused to finish off the hapless crows by kicking a series of points, each one getting increasingly ridiculous as the relative difficulty of the shots went down - Paul Medhurst the major culprit there.

Shining lights were hard to come by but there were a few stand outs. Troy Longmuir, showed his little brother how it gets done with an outstanding return of four goals in  a match where only eighteen were kicked. Many of his shots were on tight angles and from long distances so his effort was even more impressive given how poorly everyone else kicked. Clive Waterhouse was excellent, being involved in every single piece of Docker play that resulted in a goal. His hands were clean and his mind was uncharacteristically lucid on Easter Sunday. The equally maligned Shaun McManus was another who stood out, his no nonsense, no fannying about football was a breath of fresh air on a day reminiscent of the Gerard Neesham years. Finally, Luke McPharlin was a rock in defence, repelling countless attacks, and apart from a 10 minute period in the second term, soundly thrashed the King, Wayne Carey. Paul Haselby also racked up a lazy 31 possessions.

Next week the Dockers take on a shaky Collingwood outfit at the Telstra Dome, but drawing a form line on both teams is difficult, the Pies well beaten by a great team, the Dockers victorious in embarrassingly bad circumstances. It is certainly something which will be furrowing the brow of Chris Connolly in the days leading up to the match...

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