Round 11 – Fremantle v Essendon: Juan
Juan
Fremantle vs Essendon
5:40pm Saturday June 4
Domain Stadium Perth
Members of the Footy Almanac, I’d like to introduce my new friend. He’s already got 50,000 new friends so as you can see he makes friends pretty easily. His name is Juan. Pronounced one. His last name is Endten, pronounced and ten. He was born as the mighty Freo Dockers smashed a young Essendon side on Saturday night ending an 11 game drought without a win stretching back to last year’s preliminary final against Hawthorn. I’d like to honour Juan with an article of how he was brought to be on a cold June night in Perth.
Grandad, Mum, Dad and I all went for the standard two pints two cokes combo before the game and talk about how Freo are going and footy in general. We see the Hawks grind out a gutsy win vs the Dees who are doing a reverse Freo, finishing near bottom to be in the top eight. We also talk about Freo’s last quarter against St Kilda last week and I reckon that the legend that is Nat Fyfe would’ve turned that game on it’s head with his big body bursting through packs in the middle and around the ground. Grandad thinks the Dockers by 66 points, I say 47 points, Mum says she doesn’t care as long as they win and Dad is less confident tipping Freo by only 17 points.
It’s Mum’s first game of the year so she’s expecting a lot. I think we’re all quietly confident. Having a broken wrist, Garrick Ibbotson was missing this match but the youngster Sam Collins came in for his third AFL game. The dynamic duo of Connor Blakely and Lachie Weller continue to impress just about everyone who watches them with Blakely’s hard attack on the footy and Weller’s blistering pace and lethal ball skills. It’s also a welcome back for the injury prone Michael Appeness who comes in to the side to hopefully be the forward we are looking for.
Early on we’re playing great footy with lethal ball use for the first time all year. We kick a few early goals and Matty Taberner takes a great grab and kicks a great goal. We’re looking good. We kick five goals.
As the highlights show, the second quarter was all Freo. We kicked 6 goals and looked like breaking away. Mum figured out the reason why we were winning: because she was there. Not because we were playing good footy but because she was there. It was an almost plausible reason. We looked slick and Dad’s 17 point prediction was now looking more like 17 goals!
The third quarter was where we really started breaking away. Dad knows people who sit down by the fence and they have two empty seats next to them so, Dad and I sat down at the fence. We could hear everything. Juan looked like he was going to be here soon. We really shut them down.
The final quarter was pretty dull. The outscored us but, we finally cut free the anchor and floated to 16th The Hot Coales Award has to go to Sam Collins who was a rock in defence. He is almost Luke McPharlin like. The whole reason we won is because of Mum. Mum, please go to every single game from now on. Please?
So Juan, that’s how you came to be. But, as one legend is born,another legend of sport passed. RIP Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)
SCORES
FREMANTLE: 5.1 11.2 18.4 20.6 126
ESSENDON: 1.3 3.4 4.7 6.11 47
Goals
Fremantle: Pavlich 3, Walters 3, Mayne 3, Ballantyne 2, Taberner, Barlow, Sheridan, Tucker, Neale, Mundy, Weller, Griffin, D Pearce
Essendon: Daniher 2, Goddard , Fantasia, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Hams
BEST
Fremantle: Neal, Mundy, Grey, Walters, Pavlich, Barlow, Collins
Essendon: Goddard, Daniher, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Crowley
About Josh Coales
Josh Coales is a 20 year old studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications, majoring in Sports Journalism. Josh is a proud West Australian and Fremantle Dockers diehard.
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Great read. So pleased Juan decided to grace the stadium (along with your mum), even if they were a few rounds late. Furthermore, we celebrate (if that’s the correct term) the passing of Owen. Go Freo!
Well written Josh! Pity about Michael Apeness (one p but pronounced App), and what did you think of the standing ovation for Crowls? The highlight of the game for us!