Toast Fremantle's 600th Match

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BStaff17

BStaff17

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I thought i would make everyone aware that next week is Fremantle's 600th AFL match.

Obivously Dave will be celebrating a milestone as well but i leave the accolades for someone else to make another thread.

But out of the 600 games which has been everyone's favourite or memorable ones across the 600 games so far.

Personally i cant split the 2013 QF against Geelong and the PF against the Swans. That was such a great month to be a Freo fan. I actually still have both games on my hard drive and do watch the replays from time to time whenever got nothing to do and look back at fonder times.

The adversity and slap in the face from the AFL to send us there for a Final. The buildup to that game was so full of anger that we got sent there and the way the boys played that day was incredible.

Then the preliminary final against Sydney was a more dominant performance. I remember watching it at home and i cant imagine what the atmosphere was at the ground that night but you could feel the electricity of the crowd at home especially in that 2nd quarter when we swarmed the Swans. The final quarter seeing the Mexican wave on the tv and trying to comprehend that Fremantle were actually going to play in a GF it felt like a dream.
 
Great thread and thanks a bunch for writing it. Both those games were bloody fantastic, though I was only at the Sydney PF. I would also add Pav's final game to the list. It wasn't a great season for us but we sent the great man off with a win and just like the Sydney PF it was a match I was never going to miss.

Other great games I still love to remember was the winning streak we had under Connoly (of sorts) that occurred immediately before our first final appearance... though I'm still staggered about the way we won those games, and I still reckon there's a case study in there somewhere for innovation in the way the game is played.

I remember so clearly Connolly being interviewed live on air by Dennis Cometti af the end of the regular season. Dennis said Freo had turned their season around and become the form team of the comp, then basically asked him how he'd done it. The perplexed look on his face and the puzzling nonsensical stuttering answer he offered up was so memorable, but so confusing at the time that even Dennis looked as dazed and clueless as Connolly was by the end of it.

Of course, what none of us knew then, but all of us know now thanks to Pav's honesty, was that the entire team had basically thrown Connolly's game plan out the window and were playing the game purely the way they wanted to play it.

What fascinates me so much even to this day, is that it worked, and it worked so well. The team had been given a game plan so unworkable that they completely abandoned it and went into each game with basically no formal game plan whatsoever... Which is arguably why they started winning, and also possibly why they lost their first final.

In a time of role players, Moneyball myths, stats up the wazoo and team offences and defences, I still find myself wondering how the unpredictable (and therefore far more adaptable) nature of a game plan based around pure creative flow would stand up.
 
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In the spirit of the occasion... Two of my favorite moments.

Houli kicks long up the middle to Ibbo who marks, finds Mundy inside fifty.

(For the third time) "Last roll of the dice!" Neale collects after a Sandi spin to find Mundy inside fifty.


YYYooooooouuuuuuurrrrrrreee Hhheeeeeeeerrreeeeee
 

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600 freo games eh? Yeah its been that long.

A fair share of Good times and bad times.....

Yeah one of finals wins From the Ross Lyon era of 2012-15 would easily be up there.

Stand out and best moments and arguably one of the most important in History was 2003.

Freo took on North at the MCG. Freo beat North by a point. Chris Connolly yell that F word finals a few times.

Then we Belted the dogs by 10 goals in Subiaco, Lost to essendon by 10 goals in docklands.



Then comes round 22. Freo already secured finals. Already posted a 13 win and 8 loss record. Had the derby. Freo wins 14.12.96 to eagles 11.16.82. Crazy thing was it was on Free to air on Channell 10 on All states.

And yes I watched it live on 10 in South Australia too.

Good times.
 
600 hey? Only feels like 570.

Being in Geelong for the QF in 2013 an obvious highlight. The whole day was awesome - the trip down, the game itself, pre & post game at St Mary's (a local footy club next door to Geelong's ground in Kardinia Park), & the trip home singing about Hayden Ballantyne at the top of my lungs.

The whole of Grand Final week that year was also special. I've mentioned it elsewhere, but having all you lot coming over from Perth felt like the cavalry had arrived after years of being the odd one out.

Also the 2012 EF. My son was a month old so was watching the first quarter from home with my wife who saw my excitement and said "Go" and I was at the MCG just before half time thanks to a lead-footed taxi driver.
 
I don’t go to a lot of games but I do have some very fond memories from the ones I have been to.

My personal favourites that I actually got to attend:

The 2012 elimination final where Pav went beast mode and we beat Geelong at the MCG. Easily my best memory.

I was just a young boy with my dad and brother at the WACA when we had our first ever win at home. Against Geelong too.

Pav’s 300th (also against Geelong I’m pretty sure) when he kicked his 600th goal.

Another one against Geelong if you can believe it but I was also at the game where Scarlett punched Ballas and Pav soccered the winning goal in the dying seconds. I’ve never seen Subiaco Oval erupt like that before.

And no I’m not a Geelong member but it is a very odd coincidence that every single one of these games was against them.
And then of course my favourite moment of all (but I didn’t attend) was the 2013 QF against Geelong too!
 
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Logue and Balic's first game still hang's in the air as a really pleasant game.

2017 - We'd got spanked in the first two rounds and the Owen jokes were just starting to get warmed up again from the year before. Bulldogs were the reigning premiers and everyone was expecting us to get thumped.

We played a few more kids then normal and we just played a really good game of football. The Freo BF board had been so sour from getting belted in Rnd 1&2. We were all happy with how we were playing, I still remember everyone was posting at 3qtr time that doesn't matter if we lose from here because we played the kids and played good football.
 
v Melbourne in 2002. Saturday night with Farmer kicking the winning goal after the siren against his old club. We were living in Gundaroo in country NSW at the time and being able to actually watch Freo live on Foxtel was still a novelty. We were screaming in the lounge room and we scared our little baby who ended up bawling her eyes out.

v Bulldogs, Anzac Day in 2011. Nick Lower sealing the game in the last minute. Back living in WA and the little baby now had her season ticket. This was the first close game that she and I saw together. Nick Lower didn't last long but he was a favourite of ours for years.

v Geelong, Round 1 in 2012. From the first minute you could just feel there was something different about that team. Slamming on the first 5 goals and there was ... well ... belief. Belief that this team was going to go somewhere. Great start by Lyon as a coach. Pavlich at his best -- not just with the great soccer goal at the end but in the way he truly lead his teammates to buy in with the new coach.

v Sydney, PF 2013. That unbelievable pressure. The excitement of the crowd. In the last quarter the chant MCG MCG MCG . My favourite footy memory of all.

GF 2013. The game itself was a bit of a blur. But I will never forget the Friday night. The daughter bought purple hair dye and had dyed her hair ready for the big game. She went off to have her shower after dinner on Friday night and all of a sudden was all upset in the bathroom -- her purple hair dye had washed out and her hair was now a streaky combination of pale purple and a silvery/grey colour. Any teenage girl would have been mortified and she was no exception. We had to go out in inner city Melbourne on a Friday night at about 7:30-8:00pm and find a hairdresser who could fix the problem. Most were busy or closed and I thought we were out of luck. But we found one. I spent five minutes speaking to the hairdresser saying how I wanted her hair dyed purple -- she couldn't work it out and thought I was an angry Dad wanting them to take the purple _out_ of her hair. Then one of the other hairdressers who was cutting someone's hair piped up and said "I think they are from WA and they want purple for the footy". Finally it was worked out, and the girl spend about an hour in this Chapel St hairdresser's getting the royal treatment from a couple of hairdressers, ending up with shiny purple hair. She thought she was the Queen.
 

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My Top 5 (In no particular order) - that I've personally attended.
  • Demolition Derby - what a day - what a win - what horrible jumpers the wiggles wore. I still have dents in my knees from that crappy 3 tier Stand at Subi.
  • 2013 GF - much will be said about this game - it was bittersweet in many ways.
  • 2103 PF - the MCG chant was the best thing ever...
  • Pav's Last Game - the huge 29 Jumper hanging from the Stands - the Great Man's 700th Goal - the win against the soon to be Premiers - it was a great day at the footy.
  • Round 3 2010 - Freo v Geelong - Pav kicked 5, GAJ had 35 odd touches - Ballaz got reported, Morra and Hill both played rippers. Both teams scored well over 100 points.
 
Unique Name said:
Logue and Balic's first game still hang's in the air as a really pleasant game.

2017 - We'd got spanked in the first two rounds and the Owen jokes were just starting to get warmed up again from the year before. Bulldogs were the reigning premiers and everyone was expecting us to get thumped.

We played a few more kids then normal and we just played a really good game of football. The Freo BF board had been so sour from getting belted in Rnd 1&2. We were all happy with how we were playing, I still remember everyone was posting at 3qtr time that doesn't matter if we lose from here because we played the kids and played good football.
Click to expand...

Yep.... some dockers fans wanted ross Lyon to be sacked and paid out after that round 2 loss to Port by 89 points.

If you were around, I wrote a massive post. It was about freos past. It was About our finals history Before ross Lyon from 1995-2011. Only 3 years out of 17 freo made finals in that period: 2003, 2006 and 2010. Other Non vic sides in that same period made it 2 to grand finals, got 1 premiership and made finals at least 7 or 8 times.

I talked about freos finals history under ross lyon from 2012-15. Then I said we should back the Ross Lyon rebuild.

The final bit of that post was if we beat the dogs, it wont be just a normal win, it would be a massive psychological win. Regardless of the result, freo were the last team to beat the dogs in round 22 of 2016 and then round 3 of 2017.
 
It was great reading your favourite games. :)

The first game I went to, there was a big blonde and useless bloke trying to play and I said to my friend, that's one of the first players that has to go if they're going to get any better. It was Clive turns out. I had a bit to say about the jumper colours/design etc. I suppose I wasn't very good company. Needles to say, I haven't stopped trying to improve the team. I'm loving this team we've got now. I hope lots of them become Freo legends and part of our memories.

I was down at that Geelong game and on the way home I had to stand up all cold and wet on the train back to Melbourne. I didn't care too much, because Hilly had kicked that goal and the train was mostly full of Freo fans and they were pumped.

The home final where we destroyed Sydney. The crowd was something else. Never experienced anything like it, before or since.

Any derby where the crowd is calling bye bye to the west coast fans leaving before it's over.
 
Okinakashi said:
[*]Round 3 2010 - Freo v Geelong - Pav kicked 5, GAJ had 35 odd touches - Ballaz got reported, Morra and Hill both played rippers. Both teams scored well over 100 points.
[/LIST]
Click to expand...
First game I took my then 5 month old to. It was that loud I watched the last 5 minutes on the shitty little tvs behind the stands.
 
Way out of the blue, first game brought on DVD.
Round 6, 2005 vs Melbourne.
Happened to be Mundy’s debut. Remembered his kick onto a lead. Dissipated all hate for dropping McManus to debut him.

Fremantle won -143 to 129. At MCG. Incredible offensive masterclass. Farmer with 7, McPharlin with 5 - which was all kicked in the first half. Pavlich ran rampant with 28 disposals. Just an epic game.
In typical Freo tradition, a spud/lesser football player played into form. Holland with 5. Neitz kicked 6 with Robertson 5.
Fond memory of that game
 
Know it’s a heartbreaking loss- but that 2013 GF. The build up, the Purple March. The pain, tears, sweat of finally making a GF. That feeling will never be surpassed. BUT the devastation after. That will never be surpassed either, and is still the driving force in supporting this club. To be back there again.. attending the parade, marching to the MCG. One day, in September
 
2013 Prelim...Fyfe's goal soon after Lachie steadied the ship.

2012 Prelim and 2013 Final at Geelong...any time we stuff those arrogant w***ers is a good day.

2012 Game at Marvel v the Saints. I was there for Ross's first game against his old side. Zac Clarke kicked a great goal


and we beat them by 12 points...

The 2010 final against Hawthorn...capped off a sensational year and with Fyfe, Hill and Morabito we were going to own the world
And the first game Barlow played...not the one against Adelaide...the practice game against Geelong at Freo oval...I knew we had a freak on our hands.

*Of course...Freo can't have nice things*
 
Some faves of mine, from recent memory.

2010 - the whole year. Possibly the most fun I've had watching footy. Barlow, all our young guns emerging in Fyfe and Hill (and Morabito :(). We weren't serious contenders but we took off like a rocket that year, totally unexpected and were exciting and high scoring.

2012 EF. The day we arrived in the RTB era. Pav's game and his whole season in fact as a key forward was immense. Worst AA snub ever.

2013 - finals month. No feeling like it.

Fyfe's 2015. Completely dominant until that knee from Mitchell. The MCG Richmond game from that year, the way we tore apart the Cats at the Cattery. A rollercoaster year where signs of the end caught up to us but had some great moments. The club records a minor premiership for the first time.

Since then has been a different journey, more downs than ups but still some great highlights.

- Pav's final game in 2016 and notching up the 700
- Mundy after the siren 2017. Still a great watch. Some other good wins that year (Nyhuis 4 goals, Bulldogs Rd 3) but more ordinary losses unfortunately.
- 2018 - Spanking the hell out of Carlton in Melbourne was fun i guess. Playing mostly kids.
- 2019 - Really thought this was our year to come back into finals after some great early wins, terrific hat-trick by Sonny in the Bris/Pies/Port games and Fyfe 2nd Brownlow. Let's not speak of the end of that year.
- 20/21 - Some decent wins (Pies both years) but nothing groundbreaking. Hopefully this era's highlights are all ahead of us.
 
I have loved many of our wins, not the least of which are the final where we were banished to Geelong and the 2013 preliminary against Sydney. But the game I think I enjoyed more than any other was the 2015 game against Geelong in Geelong. My mate arranged a ticket for me in the Geelong members, I copped a huge amount of good natured ribbing for wearing my Dockers gear and we absolutely thumped them :)

It was the game when Fyfe got a ground ball about 40 metres out, busted through and around four Geelong players and snapped a goal. My mate, who was nominally a Geelong supported has loved Freo and Fyfe ever since - and as he's Croation he also loved Pav.

Good memories of a time when we were not only relevant, but feared.

 
Favourite games?

Top 5 probably 3 are against Geelong. Both winning finals and rd3, 2010.

Add the Destruction derby.

And Rd18, 2001 vs Hawks. Sad times but our first win for the year coming back from a lot.


PS Honorable mentions to Pav outscoring the Eagles in 2012.
 
Gekko71 said:
Other great games I still love to remember was the winning streak we had under Connoly (of sorts) that occurred immediately before our first final appearance... though I'm still staggered about the way we won those games, and I still reckon there's a case study in there somewhere for innovation in the way the game is played.

I remember so clearly Connolly being interviewed live on air by Dennis Cometti af the end of the regular season. Dennis said Freo had turned their season around and become the form team of the comp, then basically asked him how he'd done it. The perplexed look on his face and the puzzling nonsensical stuttering answer he offered up was so memorable, but so confusing at the time that even Dennis looked as dazed and clueless as Connolly was by the end of it.

Of course, what none of us knew then, but all of us know now thanks to Pav's honesty, was that the entire team had basically thrown Connolly's game plan out the window and were playing the game purely the way they wanted to play it.
Click to expand...

It wasn't Pav it was Peter Bell who basically led the "players revolt" against Connolly - he was the captain at the time.

Cuddles did have one significant impact on the AFL strategy which was rotations. We were the first club to start using the 120+ rotations strategy which made us extremely strong in the middle part of the game but led to a number of embarrassing fade-outs.
 
the saddest game i've attended for Fremantle was Fitzroy's last game. We beat them by 100+ points and the guys were just going through the motions. Was very sad the supporters who flew over were devastated.
 
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