The Footy Almanac 2007 Round 9 – Fremantle v St Kilda: Saints or Sinners?
The first printed edition of The Footy Almanac came out in 2007, before we had a website. In the absence of a real 2020 season, we will be publishing the 2007 pieces for the first time ever on www.footyalmanac.com.au. Follow the season!
Fremantle versus St Kilda
6.40pm, Friday, May 25
Subiaco Oval, Perth
by LES EVERETT
MY NIGHT AT THE FOOTY got off to an unusual start. One of the St Kilda players got onto the train at North Fremantle. He was an injured player. Running into a fit Saint anywhere really would be remarkable. Dual South Fremantle fairest-and-best winner Clint Jones was rookie-listed by the Saints for this season and had made his way onto the main list for three AFL games, before being injured. He was off to see his team with a couple of friends. Despite his Riewoldt looks, fans didn’t rush him. But he was, like the rest us, crushed as the train took on more and more passengers – I haven’t had the Tokyo peak hour experience but I have an idea of what it would be like.
A short ceremony marked the celebration of the Indigenous round, featuring WA greats Polly Farmer, Barry Cable, Ted Kilmurray, Bill Dempsey and Stephen Michael. The game began with high intensity. It was 45 seconds before someone got a kick and 12 minutes until someone, fittingly Troy Cook, scored a major.
Des Headland nailed another from outside fifty, Peter Bell snapped a left-footer after a perfect ruck tap from Aaron Sandilands and the floodgates were opened. Freo scored the first six goals of the game and Robert Harvey pinged a hammy – it was about as bad a start as St Kilda could have imagined. A late goal from Fraser Gehrig provided scant relief.
In the second quarter, the Saints created more chances. In fact both teams did, but it was a quarter of missed opportunities. St Kilda scored 1.7 and while Fremantle managed just two straight goals, Chris Tarrant twice sent shots out on the full. It was uninspiring but the Saints had managed to stay in the game.
During the third quarter they had the chance to make things really interesting, but were again thwarted by poor kicking for goal. Fremantle went into the last break with a handy 23-point lead. Nick Riewoldt was a consistent danger but while he set up scoring chances for others, his personal inaccuracy – he registered four behinds – was costly.
Fremantle gained the ascendancy again in the final quarter. There were periods when no one was in the St Kilda forward line – is that what they call flooding? Highlights included an exquisite running goal from close to the boundary by Heath Black and the manic work of Bell, who is playing like a man determined to get his team back on season’s track. And in fairness to West Coast, the club I chastised after their boorish behaviour in Round 3, I must report that a St Kilda player couldn’t resist an exchange with fans behind the bench after he was taken from the ground in the last quarter, having again lowered his colours to Antoni Grover. It was Gehrig, who often gives the impression he hates playing football.
The win did no more for Fremantle than buy some time; we’ll know they’re back when they pull off a big away-win which may set off a string of victories. The Saints, meanwhile, will be limping for a while yet but they have unearthed some good youngsters, notably Sam Gilbert and David Armitage.
Fremantle 6.6 8.6 10.9 15.11 (101)
St Kilda 1.4 2.11 5.16 6.19 (55)
GOALS
Fremantle: Bell, Tarrant, Pavlich 3, Cook, Headland, Collard, Johnson, Black, Solomon.
St Kilda: Gehrig, Riewoldt, Gilbert, Del Santo, Rix, Koschitzke.
BEST
Fremantle: Bell, McPharlin, Hasleby, Hayden, Grover, Sandilands.
St Kilda: Riewoldt, Gilbert, Del Santo, Fiora, Hayes, L. Fisher.
MILESTONES
Blake (St Kilda) 100 games; Chamberlain (umpire) 50 games.
DEBUT
Collard (Fremantle).
UMPIRES
Margetts, Chamberlain, McInerney.
OUR VOTES
Bell (F) 3, McPharlin (F) 2, Hasleby (F) 1.
BROWNLOW
Hasleby (F) 3, Bell (F) 2, Riewoldt (St. K) 1.
CROWD
39,034
For more Round by Round reports of the 2007 season click HERE
Printed copies of The Footy Almanac 2007 can be purchased here.
2007 Footy Almanac
As today is the Australian Open Tennis Final between Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev, the name Sinner and the title of this article got me thinking about doing a World Cricket Team of Sinners and an all time great Saints (St Kilda) Cricket Team.
The Sinners can include players who were involved in match fixing, spot fixing, ball tampering and improper conduct off the field. The side was selected for team balance. As the bans for Salim Malik and Mohammed Azharuddin were eventually overturned, those players were not selected.
Cameron Bancroft wasn’t selected because Salman Butt was a better Test opener. Salman Butt was chosen ahead of Herschelle Gibbs in this team because Salman Butt’s penalty was far worse.
Pleas note that Shane Warne could have been selected in this team but instead was selected in the best Saints (St Kilda) Cricket Team. After all, Warne barracked for St Kilda in the AFL.
Here is the World Test Cricket Team Of Sinners:
1. David Warner (112 Tests Australia 2011-24/Ball Tampering)
2. Salman Butt (33 Tests Pakistan 2003-10/Match Fixing)
3. Marlon Samuels (71Tests West Indies 2000-16/Match Fixing)
4. Steve Smith (c) (114 Tests Australia 2010-present/Ball Tampering)
5. Hanse Cronje (68 Tests South Africa 1992-2000/Match Fixing)
6. Alviro Peterson (36 Tests South Africa 2010-15/Match Fixing)
7. Tim Paine (wk) (35 Tests Australia 2010-21/Improper Conduct Off The Field)
8. Manoj Prabhakar (39 Tests India 1984-95/Match Fixing)
9. Mohammad Amin (36 Tests Pakistan 20009-19/Match Fixing)
10. Mohammad Asif ((23 Tests Pakistan 20005-10/Match Fixing)
11. Danish Kaneria (61 Tests Pakistan 2000-10/Spot Fixing)
12th man: Lou Vincent (23 Tests New Zealand 2001-07/Match Fixing)
This team will play an exhibition match against The Saints (St Kilda District Cricket Players who were either champion players only for St Kilda or have either played Test Cricket, represented Australia in ODIs or T20s or played first class cricket).
The side was was selected for team balance, as there were originally too many spinners.
Here is the Saints (St Kilda Cricket) Team:
1. Bill Ponsford (c) (29 Tests Australia 1924-34)
2. Marcus Harris (14 Tests Australia 2018-22)
3. Rob Quiney (2 Tests Australia 2014)
4. Peter Handscomb (20 Tests Australia 2016-23)
5. Michael Klinger (3 T20s Australia 2017)
6. Graeme Rummans (38 FC NSW/Vic 1998-2005)
7. Geoff Tamblyn (wk) (1 FC Vic 1974)
8. Shaun Graf (11 ODIs Australia 1980-81)
9. Shane Warne (145 Tests Australia 1992-2007)
10. Todd Murphy (6 Tests Australia 2023-present)
11. Adrian Jones (226 matches St Kilda 425 wickets @ 22.72 1993/93-2005/06)
12th man: Michael Beer (2 Tests Australia 20011/12/Beer is a good choice to serve the Drinks)
The Saints will play an exhibition match against The Sinners at the St Kilda Cricket Ground, Junction Oval, St Kilda.
Entertainment will be provided by the songs “Oh When The Saints Go Marching In” by Louis Armstrong and “Sinners and Saints” (2000), by George Jones.
Let’s hope for a good game of cricket. The Sinners look much better on paper than the Saints, so maybe the Sinners will need to fix the match, so that The Saints Go Marching In!