Archive for March, 2011
Fremantle wins thriller against Lions
2Fremantle 3.5 6.8 8.14 13.16 (94)
Brisbane Lions 4.5 8.6 10.7 14.8 (92)
GOALS
Fremantle: Mayne 2, Walters 2, Pitt, Mundy, Hill, Lower, Fyfe, Sandilands, Suban, Ballantyne, Bradley.
Brisbane Lions: Brown 3, Beams 2, Banfield 2, Rich 2, Polkinghorne, O’Brien, Bewick, Clark, Lester
BEST
Fremantle: Pavlich, Sandilands, Mundy, McPhee, Mayne, Fyfe
Brisbane Lions: Black, Leuenberger, Rich, Rockliff, Merrett, Brown, Hanley
INJURIES
Fremantle:
Brisbane Lions: Power (back, replaced in selected side by Beams), Brown (nose), Staker (ankle)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Donlon, Stewart, Kamolins
Official crowd: 23, 373 at the Gabba
Talent, nerve and versatility equal Fremantle star Matthew Pavlich
0Can you imagine if Matthew Pavlich walked down Queen Street Mall without wearing any Fremantle Dockers gear?
How many people would know him? Sadly, he’d go largely unrecognised.
That’s no reflection on the Dockers captain. But it does confirm one of the big injustices in the AFL – that Pavlich is grossly under-rated.
Sure, it’d be different in Melbourne. Yet even in football heartland in comparison with St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt, it’d be no comparison even though Pavlich and Riewoldt are on a par in so many ways.
Players and Virgin Blue mark season opener
0The Fremantle Dockers and the Brisbane Lions today gave away AFL tickets to an entire Virgin Blue flight to mark their first official game of the 2011 season and the AFL’s new partnership with Virgin Blue.
The Fremantle Dockers were travelling from Perth to Brisbane with Virgin Blue on DJ463 to compete the their Opening Round clash with the Lions on Saturday at the Gabba. Each guest on the flight received a double pass to attend the game.
“We thought that it was a great way to celebrate the opening round of the 2011 AFL season and encourage people to come along and get into the spirit of the game,” said Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich.
“We know that many of our fans travel to cities around Australia to support us at away games and we thought this would be a great bonus for Virgin Blue guests.”
GWS no threat to Freo: Bond
0Fremantle is confident that after years of planning for the introduction of two new AFL teams it can escape without losing a single uncontracted player to Gold Coast or Greater Western Sydney.
Midfielder Rhys Palmer is the latest young player to be linked to GWS, with the 2008 NAB AFL Rising Star denying suggestions last week that he had signed a four-year deal with the fledgling club.
Football manager Chris Bond said Fremantle had been planning extensively for the introduction of both new franchises and he was comfortable with where the club sat in the changing AFL landscape.
“In regard to … not only our young players but our leaders as well, we’ve got a history of making sure they’re going to stay at this football club for a long period of time,” Bond said from Fremantle Oval on Monday.
“We started planning a couple of years ago with this, so we’re very comfortable with where we sit with regards to GWS and Gold Coast coming into the competition. (more…)
Clancee looks to overflow at Freo
0Rookie-listed Clancee Pearce improved his chances of being elevated to Fremantle’s senior list for a third consecutive season with an outstanding effort for Swan Districts to open the WAFL season.
Pearce worked tirelessly from half-forward on Saturday to finish with 25 possessions, two goals and a game-high 15 marks, his inspirational third quarter going a long way towards Swans turning a nine-point half-time deficit into a 13-point lead at the last change.
While East Perth finished powerfully to win the match by 15 points, Pearce continued to exert an influence in a dominant four-quarter display at Steel Blue Oval.
Selected at No.48 in the 2009 rookie draft, Pearce has played 14 games for the Dockers in the past two seasons.
The 20-year-old, a member of Swan Districts’ premiership side last year, said he had been encouraged by his latest strong showing.
Fremantle members give chance to vote on potential new club song
0Fremantle members will be given the chance to vote on potential new club songs later this season as the Dockers wave the axe over their controversial theme song.
The club song is the next element of Fremantle’s branding to come under scrutiny, after the club decided to dump the anchor and the red and green colours from the team’s guernsey and change the club logo.
The song could still survive in a re-worked fashion, with original writer Ken Walther working on a new, more up-beat version to be presented to fans.
Details of the club’s member poll will be released in July, with Freo fanatics to be offered a choice between maintaining the current song, adopting the re-worked version or changing to a totally new song.
Palmer denies GWS rumours
0Rhys Palmer’s manager has dismissed rumours suggesting that the Fremantle midfielder had signed with Greater Western Sydney for the 2012 season.
Palmer, who is in the final year of his current contract with Fremantle, has been continually linked with the Giants this pre-season, and it was rumoured this week that he had already signed a four-year deal with coach Kevin Sheedy’s side.
Fremantle has denied the reports and Palmer, through his manager Colin Young, labelled them a “joke”.
Young, speaking on afl.com.au‘s Footy Feast radio program, said the rumours were “simply not true”.
“He certainly hasn’t signed to GWS and I certainly haven’t signed him to GWS,” Young said.
“It’d be ridiculous for Rhys to sit down with Fremantle or have GWS put down one of those monster offers that everyone’s talking about, because he needs to put the score on the board early this season – in the first eight to 10 games – to get his worth back up in the AFL.” (more…)
Pre-season guide: Fremantle
0Best 22
FB: Alex Silvagni, Antoni Grover, Roger Hayden
HB: Paul Duffield, Luke McPharlin, Greg Broughton
C: Nat Fyfe, David Mundy, Stephen Hill
HF: Ryan Crowley, Matthew Pavlich, Matt de Boer
FF: Hayden Ballantyne, Jack Anthony, Chris Mayne
FOLL: Aaron Sandilands, Michael Barlow, Rhys Palmer
I/C: Michael Johnson, Garrick Ibbotson, Adam McPhee
SUB: Nick Suban
Injury list
Michael Barlow (broken leg) – TBC
Ben Bucovaz (hamstring) – 1 week
Matt de Boer (hamstring) – 1 week
Roger Hayden (foot) – 8-12 weeks
Joel Houghton (broken arm) – 3 weeks
Garrick Ibbotson (ankle) – 3 weeks
Anthony Morabito (knee) – season
Tendai Mzungu (knee) – 8-10 weeks
Tim Ruffles (knee) – TBC
Byron Schammer (hip) – 6 weeks
Most valuable player
Aaron Sandilands, the best ruckman in the game, simply cannot be replaced and Fremantle is a significantly weaker side without him. Sandilands missed three games late last year – all losses – and his presence both at ruck contests and when forward remains a unique hurdle for opposition clubs.
Foxsports.com.au’s 2011 AFL premiership season preview with expert Gerard Healy: Fremantle
0Foxsports.com.au continues its countdown to the AFL premiership season by previewing Fremantle, the team Brownlow Medal winner Gerard Healy predicts will finish seventh this year.
Room for improvement: The Dockers were the big improvers of 2010, so it’s reasonable to expect them to plateau this season. In fact, that would be a good result, because the Purple Haze has been cruelled by injury in the lead-up to round one. With Michael Barlow (leg), Roger Hayden (foot), Garrick Ibbotson (ankle), Anthony Morabito (knee), Byron Shammer (hip) and promising recruit Tendai Mzungu (knee) facing lengthy lay-offs, the pressure will be on superstars Matthew Pavlich and Aaron Sandilands to carry the Dockers in the first couple of months. For Freo to improve on last year’s one finals victory, silky-skilled wingman Stephen Hill needs to become a consistent match-winner and youngsters Matt De Boer, Dylan Roberton and Nat Fyfe have to find another level.
Griffin the latest worry for Dockers
0Fremantle ruck recruit Jonathon Griffin is expected to start the season under duress after the 24-year-old was diagnosed with tendonitis in his adductor muscles.
The former Adelaide ruckman, who joined Fremantle during last year’s trade period in October, was rested with fellow big man Zac Clarke from the club’s final practice match last Saturday.
It is understood a medical diagnosis has revealed Griffin is suffering from tendonitis, or inflammation of the tendon, in his upper thighs, with the condition likely to need managing early in the season.
The Dockers declined to comment on his problem.