Many had this game marked down as a big win to Fremantle. After all, North Melbourne had sold their home game to Western Australia, and Freo were the “away” team at their own home ground.
What an advantage.
With a vastly superior team on paper, and finals appearing on the agenda, it seemed a formality that they were going to knock the Kangas over, right?
Nobody explained this to North Melbourne, however. And what ensued was a gripping clash between the Dockers and Kangaroos that would have had many Freo supporters much more worried than they thought they’d be.
The Roos brought the heat, applying the type of pressure inside 50 that made it close to impossible for the Dockers to get their regular rebound from the back half. Repeat stoppages as the result of relentless tackling saw Freo have to revert to scrapping their way out of it.
Luke Davies-Uniacke registered 14 disposals, four clearances, and a goal in the first quarter, and it appeared as though North were right up for the fight. They dominated territory, and as Josh Treacy had a shot at goalagainst the flow of the game on the siren to leave the Dockers just two points adrift, you got the feeling that Freo had no right being that close.
North’s failure to capitalise on their first-quarter dominance came back to haunt them in the second, as the rain started tumbling down, and the Dockers took to the conditions like ducks to water, slotting three goals in a five-minute blast of power football to give themselves some breathing room.
But North were not done with yet, and after a tight (and pretty messy) third quarter, we were set for a classic last quarter of footy.
The pressure went up another notch, North closed the gap, and in the end, the cream rose to the top, with Luke Jackson kicking the goal to give Freo enough breathing space to record the win.
Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Big Questions to see how this played out, and who the players of note were.
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