Fremantle Dockers v Adelaide Crows
Tony Modra Reincarnated x 2
Disco Monagle
Treacy v Thilthorpe – Rising Rock Stars
Peter McKenna, Peter Hudson, Alex ‘Jezza’ Jesaulenko, Warwick ‘the Wiz’ Capper, Dermott Brereton, Jason Dunstall, Gary Ablett snr, Paul Salmon, Tony ‘Plugger’ Lockett, Alan Jakovich, Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin and the mercurial Tony Modra all have one thing in common, they were all true Rock Stars of the competition. Fans would flock to games just to watch these idols strut their stuff.
There was an ‘X’ factor and aura surrounding these forwards which made them bigger than the game, and as time has passed, the stories and urban myths about these legends has just grown. If the AFL was a Homeric tale they would be held in esteem as the God’s of the AFL.
(Before I get asked about Mark ‘I’m an Individual’ Jackson he is in a league all his own, with history not being kind to him.)
The legendary Tony Modra kicked 440 goals for the Adelaide Crows and 148 goals for the Fremantle Dockers, in a career full of highlights. Pack marks, speckies, miraculous goals, with flowing blond locks and a cheeky mischievous smile and a sexy strut, Modra was the rock star of the AFL between 1993 to 2001. Modra’s highlights reel is amazing with only thing missing from his CV is a premiership medal.
Sadly, in 1997 Modra was injured in the Preliminary Final and missed playing in the Crows inaugural Premiership side, while in 1998 he never quite rose to the same level as he struggled with his recovery from his knee injury from the year before. Modra in 1997 won the Coleman Medal and was All Australian for the second time in his career. Modra was named in the Crows team of the century, while he made the 25 of the Dockers team from 1995 to 2000.
Tony Modra, superstar.
I see a lot of the presence and allure of the former Crow and Docker in both Josh Treacy and Riley Thilthorpe. In games this year there is a hush and awe from the crowds of both clubs with heightened expectations whenever they go near the ball.
In Victoria we are often starved about the talk and hype about players from South Australia and Western Australia, unless it is a story about one Harley Reid, but word is spreading rapidly about The Big Cohuna and Riley.
If Treacy or Thithorpe played for a Victorian team they would almost be held in such high esteem as the much-hyped son of gun from Collingwood.
The dual between Fremantle and Adelaide on Anzac Day resides in the shadows of the Tigers and Demons, and Pies and Bombers ANZAC matchups at the MCG. The build up around the ANZAC eve and day MCG clashes and the later than normal Perth start time of 8:10pm EST, means the Perth game has been treated as an afterthought by the AFL to fill a void on the Friday night.
But it shouldn’t.
It is arguable the Dockers and Crows game from Optus is the match of the round with the Crows rising to the upper echelons of the ladder if they win, while the slow starting Dockers can kick start their season with an ANZAC Day win. It is an intriguing and mouth-watering match with much on the line, including the battle between the two forwards tyros, Treacy and Thilthorpe. There is a tease of an Ablett snr versus Paul Salmon or a Plugger versus Dunstall type forward shoot out in the wild west as the sun sets on ANZAC Day.
I’ll digress before we start with the review, with a congratulations to Quentin Narkle who started his career at Geelong in 2017 and then had a stint at Alberton in the Teal and now finds himself out west. Narkle has had a never say die to his career, and tonight he plays his 58th and first game for the Dockers. A story of survival against the odds.
The 28th Len Hall Tribute Match
53,000 plus fans packed into Optus Stadium to cheer their beloved Purple Haze who jumped the Crows to lead by 25-points at quarter time, extending that lead to 42-points at three quarter time before holding on for an 18-point victory.
Andrew Brayshaw was adjudged the best on ground with a maximum of 12 votes to win the first Arthur Leggett Medal. For the record Arthur Leggett was a World War II veteran who died on April 6th this year aged 106 – that is a fair innings, but more amazing was he was married for 74 years.
Where the game was Won and Lost
For three quarters it looked like the Dockers were having a season-defining game, however, they let themselves down by not running the match out in the last quarter and letting the Crows off the hook. Yes, the Dockers won, but it always disappoints when a team rests on their laurels and cruises to the line.
A chance for a percentage boost was squandered by the Purple Haze.
In the first quarter the Dockers jumped the Crows with Andrew Brayshaw, Hayden Young and Caleb Serong winning the midfield and stoppage battles, while Shai Bolton put out on a clinic with his running and ball skills, linking up well with Joshua Treacy.
Jordan Dawson and Rory Laird fought hard to combat the early dominance of the Dockers, but they weren’t given much assistance. Ben Keays, Taylor Walker, Riley Thilthorpe, Josh Rachelle and Wayne Milera had a total of four possessions between them for the quarter, with Alex Pearce, Brennan Cox, Jordan Clark and co leading by example up back rendering the Crows forward line impotent.
It took a sublime effort from Issac Rankine to kick a spectacular goal from nothing to keep the Crows in the game nearing the break, but that was that was the only highlight for the Crows for the quarter. Further, the Crows undid the genius of Rankine’s goal by doing the unforgivable and allowing the Dockers to kick two goals late in the quarter which blew the margin out.
Red time goals can really hurt, and the Crows paid dearly for some sloppy defence late in the first quarter, and they didn’t seem to learn from their mistake as they repeated it again late in the third quarter.
Justin Longmuir is often criticised for his for lack of flair from the coach’s box, but his use of playing Michael Frederick wide up and down one wing and as the decoy target up forward worked well and Frederick was rewarded with a couple of nice goals. The Crows defenders were being drawn into the aerial battle with Treacy, Jye Amiss and Oscar McDonald leaving Frederick free as an alternative option.
Further, the inclusion of Oscar McDonald countered the absence of Luke Jackson in a manner that still threatened, while the Crows really missed Darcy Fogarty, and their entire forward line seemed to be out of kilter without the big 32 being on the ground.
Early in the second quarter, Mark Keane had a bit of a brain fade when he gave away two free kicks and a fifty-metre penalty which allowed Jye Amiss to waltz in for his second goal and for Treacy to kick his second goal also.
The Dockers lead blew out to 30 points midway through the second quarter before the Crows kicked into gear.
While Keane was still kicking himself at one end of the ground, Luke Ryan was out-hassled in marking contests by both Josh Rachele and Riley Thilthorpe as the Crows fought their way back into the game.
With Josh Worrell and Max Michalanney finally clocking on for work the Crows fought their way back into the game. Dawson, Laird, Jake Soligo, James Peatling and Alex Neal-Bullen started getting more ball, while Rankine, Thilthorpe and Rachelle were looking dangerous up front.
At halftime it looked like game on, but the Dockers came out after halftime with a real hunger for the game and they attacked and beat up the Crows, mercilessly. When Jordan Clark ran down Neal-Bullen early the third as he walked into what seemed an easy goal, it set the standard for the Dockers for the rest of the quarter.
The Clark tackle set the tone as the miserly Dockers defence lead by Pearce and Cox shut the Crows out of the game with their pressure acts and a never say die attack on the footy.
Andrew Brayshaw, Celeb Serong, Jordan Clark and Matthew Johnson monstered the Crows midfield as they racked up possessions at will. Jordan Dawson, the normally reliable and accurate distributor for the Crows was forced into making bad decisions by the constant third quarter pressure of the Dockers.
The Crows were held to a mere four points for the third quarter as the Dockers blew their lead out to 42 points at the last break.
Back tracking for a moment, while Dawson had a quarter to forget, it exposed a bigger problem for the Crows. Rory Laird and Matt Crouch are ball magnets for the Crows, and they have been for a few years, but they aren’t match winners. Both players are highly predictable, and it begs the question, if the Crows are to be taken seriously as a contender, then the role and worth of both players needs to be looked at.
When a team constantly finishes each season unerringly close to the finals then something must change, and hard decisions needs to be made. I don’t see it as coincidental that when Crouch was subbed out of the match the Crows made a charge at the Dockers in the last quarter.
The Dockers were obliterated the hapless Crows in every facet of the game coming to the last change and they had a well-earned seven goal lead. Taylor Walker, Ben Keays, Mitchell Hinge, Wayne Millera, were among a large group of Crows players who had had little to no impact on proceedings before the last change.
Adelaide never really mounted a serious challenge to the Dockers in the last quarter, but they did kick four goals and held the men in Purple to four points.
It was a disappointing finish for the Fremantle, and it was reminiscent of the game late last season when the Bombers came from nowhere in the last quarter to beat them after Treacy left the ground injured.
Luke Ryan
On paper Luke Ryan had a good match with 23 possessions and nine marks, but stats can lie, and in this match they did. Both Rachele and Thilthorpe outgunned him on more than one occasion.
Sometimes it not what the stats say, but rather what they don’t say.
Ryan has the potential to be an elite player in the AFL, and many will argue he already is, but he could be more. At times he looked slow in this match, and a bit off the pace. I’ve got to be careful what I say here, and I’m not putting Ryan down, but for Fremantle to win a Premiership the improvement must come from the senior players to go the extra yard and work on the one percenters to take their game and the team’s game to the next level.
Taylor ‘Tex’ Walker
Taylor Walker is still an important player for the Crows; however he is ageing and with age might come wisdom, but it also means the body needs to be nurtured differently. Tex kicked two goals in junk time, but he was well beaten by Alex Pearce on the day, and he played like he needed a rest.
Walker will need to be nursed along at various stages of this year to be of value to the Crows if they make it to September. There is not a person in the land who would not want to see the big Tex ride into the sunset on some kind of high this season.
Sam Darcy v Reilly O’Brien
It is always entertaining when there is a match within a match, but it is bloody annoying when the umpires interfere with the matchup by blowing their whistle and awarding freekicks that aren’t there to the naked eye. Darcy and O’Brien matched well on each other in this clash, with O’Brien taking the points from the lumbering Darcy, while Darcy won the free kick count.
At times the umpires should just let some battles play out naturally.
Treacy v Thilthorpe
The winner on the night of the up-and-coming star forwards of the game was The Big Cohuna, but that is not to undervalue the game of Riley. Treacy finished the game with two goals and three behinds while Thilthorpe outscored him with three goals and two behinds, but it was up the ground where Treacy excelled.
Both players could have kicked four or five goals, and it bodes well for future shoot outs for the rising rock stars of the AFL.
For the record, Treacy ended up with 16 possessions and seven marks to Thilthorpe’s nine possessions and two marks. Thilthorpe franked his courage by coming back onto the ground after what looked like a serious hand injury and having a real impact on the game in the final quarter when he was obviously hurting.
Treacy and Thilthorpe are tough players who possess a lot of talent mixed in with a lot of Mongrel, and the ANZAC Day 2025 efforts of both would have brought a smile to Tony Modra’s face and the other Gods of forwards past.
Shai Bolton and Issac Rankine
Bolton and Rankine are both highly tuned Ferraris and to watch both in action on the same ground is a special treat, not only for their fans, but for lovers of the game in general. Very few players can excite the way Bolton and Rankine can, and in battles to come between the Dockers and the Crows, not only will it be The Big Cohuna and Riley who turn up the heat, it will be the battle of the two Ferraris who turn the heat into a furnace.
Quickies
Oscar McDonald deserves a mention (his second) as he had to fill the shoes vacated by the absence of Luke Jackson. McDonald’s game showed the Dockers have depth in their list to cover the odd injury or three. On the other hand, the Crows looked exposed up front in the absence of Darcy Fogarty and it does raise questions about their depth.
Murphy Reid looks like a real goer with a lot of flair. He didn’t set the world on fire in this game, but he showed enough to suggest he will be in the system for some time yet.
Jye Amiss kicked two goals from the goal square with little to no pressure on him, but when he did have pressure applied on him, he dropped marks or fumbled the ball. I noted in the first quarter of the game if Jye could actually hold a couple of his contested marks he would tear the game apart, but it didn’t quite happen for him in this game. Confidence players can be frustrating to watch at times.
James Peatling has been a good pick up for the Crows this year as he brings a point of difference to the Crows, and from week to week his form remains consistent.
The ‘Len Hall’ Tribute Match and ANZAC Day
53,000 plus fans and a high-quality game between two evenly matched teams must go a long way to convincing the House of AFL to permanently retain the Len Hall Tribute Match as the night match on ANZAC Day. Let’s see what the AFL decide.
Next Week
Next week the Dockers travel to Marvel to take on the erratic Saints on the Friday night while the Crows have a pleasant Saturday afternoon date the Blues. If the Dockers or the Crows believe they will be in the playpen come September, then next weekend’s games are must wins.
