Australian Football

Match Report

Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich produced another standout performance as he stormed towards another club best and fairest award. The skipper kicked six goals and Chris Mayne booted four as the Dockers defeated the Western Bulldogs. The win kept hopes of a fourth finals appearance in the club’s history alive. It was a tight, low-scoring contest, which the Dockers relished. But the lack of scoring allowed the Dogs to stay in the contest when Fremantle should have had the four points secured by three-quarter time. The Dogs were brave, but it was again their lack of options up forward which cost them a real chance of victory. Mature aged recruit Tory Dickson led the way for the Dogs with three majors, while Luke Dalhuas was lively with two goals. The win left the Dockers in 12th spot, but on equal premiership points with eighth-placed St Kilda. Brendan McCartney’s Bulldogs sat in 14th spot, with just five wins after 15 rounds.

GOALS

Fremantle: Pavlich 6; Mayne 4; Lower, Crowley, Broughton, Hill

Western Bulldogs: Dickson 3; Dahlhaus 2; Higgins, Griffen, Minson

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Fremantle: Pavlich, Mayne, Ballantyne, Pearce, De Boer, Crowley

Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Liberatore, Dickson, Minson, Wallis, Picken

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Fremantle: Pavlich, Mayne, Pearce, Ballantyne, Lower, Crowley
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Higgins, Dickson, Wallis, Picken, Wallis

COACHES COMMENTS
Ross Lyon(Frem): At half-time we had a strong message of open up the clearances and really play with a hard edge to get the ball out of there, and then don’t invent handballs. We got more efficient with the ball, had more penetration in our play, and then all of a sudden because people weren’t looking for cheap handballs there was a lot better release to space to our forwards

Brendan McCartney (WB): I don't buy the theory there's a good loss but it's not like some of the nasty losses we've had this year, we handled that a little bit better. I think with a team that is learning the game, a lot of these players are learning it on the run ... they were able to deal with about 80 per cent of it today.

Umpires: Fila, Nicholls, Hay