Round 22 – Fremantle v Melbourne: Dr McClelland Goes Knocking On Heaven’s Door

Dr McClleland Goes Knocking On Heaven’s Door
Fremantle Dockers versus Melbourne Demons
2:40pm, 30th August
Domain Stadium, Perth
Josh Coales

 

Finally…

21 long years. Finally. We’ve won something. Something that is recognised by the AFL. Not a derby, but something. The McClelland Trophy. The minor premiership. I can die a semi happy boy as I’ve been around when Freo have won something. William C. McClelland is a former doctor, footy player and administrator. He unfortunately died in 1957 but his legacy lives on through his induction in the AFL Hall of Fame and his captaining of Melbourne. His legacy will also live on in the hearts of all Freo fans as his name is on our first piece of silverware.

We came into this one off the semi high of finding out West Coast didn’t score a goal in the first quarter whilst the Crows kicked 8. Brilliant. We need to win our next two or have them lose for us to seal our first (of hopefully 2 in 2015) piece of silverware in our 21 long years as a football club.

We take the train in without Grandad who is a big out but we have Mum and my Sister coming back in. Hopefully Grandad is fit for the finals. We get to Subi for only 1 pint and coke combo today. Risky, dangerous or just plain stupid as last time we undercut or usual routine, we lost. Well, at least now we are versing Melbourne now but, footy is a funny game and the Dees will be fired up as it’s Nathan Jones’ 200th. 200 great games with the Dees. I respect him so much as the Dees haven’t been real successful in his tenure there, much like I respect Mathew Pavlich for playing 300 games in the mighty purple after ridiculous offers from other clubs to go back home. We arrive at the pub to find the mighty Crows have won! Now we have to win today for that piece of silverware I and all Freo supporters desire.

We settle into our seats only to see Sonny Walters near us! A mixed feeling for me as I love Sonny but love seeing him out on the ground even more. I sheepishly wonder up to him and ask him for his autograph. Awesome! I was stoked. Last week, I asked Jono Brown for his autograph on his new book (great book) but he said wait a minute. We asked him politely again and told us to wait a minute. We did but he left and didn’t sign it. Thanks. But, Sonny was a champ. Great start. It only went downhill when Dad reminds me (as he does on a daily basis) when I was 4 I was scared of the demon’s mascot. I was 4. But, the Dees run out, mascot free and so do Freo. Let’s lock up the minor premiership.

The first quarter starts good and we score the first 5 goals of the game and Melbourne don’t score a goal. Ibbotson is up forward continuing the trend of playing defenders as ‘swingmen’. He kicks his first goal since 2013 and it must feel great to do that. We love hand passing it. Quite a few times the ball is in the 50 and we have a possible scoring shot but hand pass it around until someone wants to kick a major. Danyle Pearce kicks a goal off the outside of his foot. It looks like he can’t kick with his non preferred or he loves snapping the ball. Good quarter early on. The highlight is Ibbo kicking his first since 2013.

The second quarter is where we kick away. We play great footy early on and kick 6 goals. The dees come back later in the term but the damage is truly done and we are probably gojng to switch off. The highlight was a spin and check-side from Danyle Pearce 30 seconds in and also Sandi took a great mark at the top of the square but had no clue what to do. He eventually slotted the major.

The third quarter was as expected, we sort of switched off. We still kicked 3 goals. The highlight was knowing we had the McClelland trophy locked up. Finally.

The fourth quarter time to get excited. We only kicked 3 goals but the damage was done. The highlight was finally bringing home a piece of silverware. Finally.

We’ve secured minor premiers and we’ll hopefully be allowed to rest some players for the Port game. The Hot Coales award goes to Ed Langdon with a solid debut. Congrats Ed.

Well done Freo. 21 years.

Finally.

 

FREMANTLE:  5.1  11.3  14.5  17.6 (108)
MELBOURNE:  0.1  4.2  6.5  8.6 (54)

 

GOALS:
Fremantle: Pavlich, D Pearce 3, Neale, de Boer 2, Barlow, Hill, Ibbotson, Mayne, Mzungu, Sandilands, Sheridan
Melbourne: Garlett, Hogan 2, Watts, Gawn, Grimes, Vince

BEST:
Fremantle: Mundy, Neale, Hill, D Pearce, Sandilands
Melbourne: Cross, Viney, Dunn, Vince

 

UMPIRES: Farmer, Margetts, Brown.

 

CROWD: 33,529 at Domain Stadium.

 

OUR VOTES: Cross (Melb) 1, Neale (Fre) 2, Mundy (Fre) 3.