I came into this match probably one of the very few people who had tipped the Eagles. Not that I thought it was likely they’d win, but when the Eagles and Dockers play each other, anything can happen.
Admittedly, the Eagles have largely lost a bit of their old spark in recent years, but in West Coast, I could see a similar attitude to the early 2000 Dockers side: Our season may be done, but we can make life hard for you. In honesty, my pre-game prediction, as a Dockers fan, was that this was going to either be a pretty fun but relatively boring game – an easy win to Freo, or a terrible game where the Eagles pull one out of nowhere and the Dockers, with all the opportunity in the world to further their top-four, maybe even top-two ambitions, would completely fall apart – as they so often have.
In the end, I was probably wrong in both accounts, but also not. The Eagles did manage to pull out the kind of performance that would have Adam Simpson saying, ‘hey where’s this been the last two months?’ and then the Dockers swap it around to play like the top 4 side that they want to be. All in all, it was a pretty interesting match.
It was a game of two halves, and here’s my observations.
The First Half
Well, to say possession is the Dockers’ own game is a little disingenuous, as they got the idea from the Eagles. Usually when Fremantle win, they take around 100 marks throughout the game to control possession and ball movement. This was a trademark of the 2018 Eagles, and boy did they turn back the clock!
Towards half time, the Eagles were up to near 50 marks, while the Dockers were languishing around 19. The Eagles just controlled the entire first half – not enough to build sustained momentum, but enough to make it damn hard for the Dockers to generate any of the ball movement that they wanted to make.
The Dockers were able to win the clearances and most of the contested possession, but the Eagles had all the numbers around the contest, providing significant levels of pressure, so that when Freo got the clearances, they didn’t really go anywhere and often resulted in a rush kick forward, easily intercepted by one of the West Coast defenders.
Through the middle, Harley Reid and Elliot Yeo got busy: Reid was pulling out some of his party tricks and Yeo was slicing and dicing by foot. It was a very rounded performance. Conversely, the Dockers were too much in their head, disorganised, and tried to be methodical, which usually brings out their worst. I think if Pearce’s absence demonstrates one thing about his importance, in how well he holds the backline together. Without him, their backline weren’t able to create or hold to their usual systems, and that flowed on to all over the ground, allowing the Eagles ample time and space to move in.
What kept the Dockers in the game was that on the few occasions they were able to create any kind of space, they tended to get the ball inside 50, and either score or at least lock it in long enough to prevent the Eagles building a lead. It wasn’t convincing at all, and walking in at half-time, it was the Eagles’ game to lose.
The Second Half
At half-time, it was unclear how the Dockers could possibly get themselves back in the game, and I surmised that kicking the next ten would be beneficial – but I had no idea where that inspiration would come from. Who was going to say, ‘Enough is enough, we’re better than them, let’s act like it”?
I could speculate that they’d played the first half with the wrong guernseys, and would only need to put on the right ones, but that’d be silly and unfair on the Eagles’ efforts. So let’s speculate on what Longmuir told his boys.
I think the first thing he did was walk over to Treacy and say, “mate, you’re too big, too ugly, and too reliable to be beaten the way you’re being beaten, especially on the wings.” That was where the Dockers really weren’t able to take any contested marks at all. Then he’s walked over the Walker and said, “you’re doing an okay job on Liam Ryan, but you’re also in the team to make things happen.”
Because within the first few minutes of the third quarter, Treacy clunked a bit contested mark off half-back – one of those “Get out of Jail” marks that open the game right up and create avenues to attack. You will have heard some call them the most important marks in the game aside from grabs inside 50, and this was a clear example of why they’re so highly regarded. The ball was then delivered with some risk to the middle, and Walker got himself involved in the next passage. In fact, their first four inside 50s involved a mark on the wing, something completely missing in the first half.
But they didn’t get kick-mark happy. The Dockers got handball happy. To beat the Eagles’ pressure and game, they simply stopped rushing the kicks forward and used handball to generate run pace. It wasn’t always pretty, it didn’t always work, but that, combined with a huge quarter from their big men led by Treacy, allowed them to pile on ten goals to two in the second half, almost but not quite finishing off my Nostradamus-like efforts.
The Dockers also got much more organised defensively, and the Eagles lost their ability to control the ball by foot and started to go long down the line. In the first half, West Coast’s use of ball by foot was creative, intuitive, and aggressive. As the Dockers got on top, their defence was finally able to establish some system, whereas the Eagles’ options became fewer by foot, and they more often resorted to playing a much safer game. This played into Freo’s hands perfectly.
Brawl or Brawn? The Different approaches of Reid and Treacy.
There hasn’t been a good, physical, emotional derby in some times, and there was one man who led the way: Harley Reid.
He has got some mongrel in him I’ve not seen before, and, among the crowd, was drawing some parallels with a former Derby antagonist: Hayden Ballantyne. The Dockers were able to diminish his efforts to win the ball in the third quarter – he only picked up the 11 touches after half time, to go with his 17 before it, and he reacted with physicality.
Almost every play he was in during that third quarter was followed with some push, shove, a late tackle, a bit of the old biff and brawl. It was as if, to get accustomed to the Derby, he’d watched tapes of the old Demolition Derby, and while there were no round house punches, he brought some of it back with antagonistic flair. It was fun to watch, but hardly inspiring, and not conducive to how he led the way early.
Conversely, Treacy, who doesn’t mind a bit of push and shove, himself, seemed to be involved in every play, was a physical presence up forward and around the ground. He made a big statement with a one-step, 60-metre kick that sailed through the middle. We all love a bit of push and shove, we all love an antagonist and a bit of character, but the type of character Treacy revealed was a leader with determination and a level head. His third quarter turned the game completely, and probably should’ve won him the medal. Reid’s did nothing but set himself up as the next derby villain (which is not a bad character to be, if I’m being totally honest), but he’s going to have to work on how to get himself back into a game.
To Reid’s credit, he did that in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late. He’s young. He’ll learn.
Other notable mentions:
Tom Cole had a really great game in defence. He was the chief interceptor, and looks like he’ll fill McGovern’s role nicely in the future. His 25 touches included nine marks. It was a very good game.
Caleb Serong won the Glendinning- Allen Medal. This was a predictable result, though not undeserved. While his Dockers were flagging in the first half, he found his way to continually get his hands on the ball – he just became much more damaging in the second. He finished with 31 and a goal, though arguable Brayshaw’s 35 and a goal was to his equal performance.
Tom Emmett found his way back into the Freo side and kicked three, which is a good result for the usually defensive forward. He teamed up with Treacy to score a pressure goal in the second quarter, and it was probably the only element of that half that truly looked anything like the Dockers.
I really liked Liam Ryan’s game. His numbers weren’t great, though he grabbed a couple of goals, but he led the way with corralling and pressure and really make it difficult for Walker to generate movement. In the end, Walker probably got on top with 16 disposals and provided a lot of run and carry, but it was a rounded performance from Liam Ryan that has been a little lacking of late.
That pretty much wraps it up. I could mention every player, as everyone had both good and poor elements within the game – except poor Trew, who was subbed off about 30 seconds in after a massive knock. But overall, this was an interesting, if messy game. It was a scrap, it was passionate, it was a classic derby, but the Dockers are just a very good footy side and the Eagles just ran out of puff, as the Dockers piled on 17.8 to their. 11.9
