Fremantle star Nat Fyfe has turned back the clock with a brilliant 37 possession performance to lead the Dockers to a 24-point victory over the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium
Fyfe had his most prolific match since his 2019 Brownlow medal winning season and combined with 17 clearances from Caleb Serong set up Fremantle’s 14.11 (95 to 10.11 (71) win.
The Dockers have been heavily criticised for their slow ball movement and inability to score. But they transformed the way they played, took the game on and kicked their second highest score of the season.
Andrew Brayshaw was also fantastic with 30 possessions as Fremantle’s star midfielders combined for 104 disposals, including 72 handballs.
It was evident early that they were going to play differently.
The Dockers had 69 handballs in the first term. That was significantly ahead of their average of 39 per quarter across the first six games.
Fyfe had 12, Serong had 10, Andrew Brayshaw had 10 and Jordan Clark kept charging off half-back with 282 metres gained.
Fremantle kicked four goals in the first quarter which was their highest tally for the season and took an eight-point lead into the first change.
Both teams had injury issues. The Dogs lost star midfielder Tom Liberatore to illness before the game and replaced him with Caleb Daniel. Then Cody Weightman injured his elbow in the opening quarter and was subbed out of the match.
Fremantle then lost Josh Draper to a hamstring injury and subbed Cooper Simpson into the match.
The Dogs made the Dockers pay for errors at the start of the second term and quickly took the lead. But Fyfe set up a goal for Michael Frederick with his 15th handball and at that point, only one Bulldog had compiled 15 touches for the game.
Goals continued to flow for both teams. Patrick Voss kicked the first goal of his career and Dockers rushed from everywhere to celebrate and then the Dockers finally took some pace out of the game and went to half-time with a three-point advantage.
But even then they had taken only 37 marks for the half in another sign of how dramatically they’d changed their style.
The third term swung on momentum. Fremantle pulled clear by 12 points when Fyfe continued his brilliance by snapping truly but they couldn’t make the knockout blow.
The Dogs had a stack of opportunities but failed to seize them. They kicked 1.7, including a shock set shot miss from close range from Marcus Bontempelli before Sam Darcy finally converted on the siren with his third goal of the night and Fremantle led by five points.
The game was set up for a hero and Tom Emmett produced an inspirational smother on Taylor Duryea but Fremantle narrowly missed turning that turnover into a goal.
Cooper Simpson then took once bounce down the outer wing and showed composure to chip the ball to Bailey Banfield and he gave the Dockers a 12-point lead with four minutes remaining.
When Banfield kicked his third goal moments later, the Dockers were home.
Source Agencies
