Australian Football

Match Report

It's hard enough for any team to cope with the flooding defensive mechanisms of Ross Lyon's Fremantle but on Saturday night at Subiaco, the lowly Brisbane Lions also had flooding rains to deal with. It was a combination the proved far to difficult for the developing Lions to overcome as they went down to the Dockers by 83 points. Such was the difficulty Brisbane had in scoring on the night, it did not register more than a single behind in the first half. And even that behind, the first score of the match, was rushed.

With heavy rain falling, the Lions, while not managing anything more than that rushed behind, at least managed to restrict Fremantle in terms of scoring and at the first break the Dockers had just 2.2 on the board and were only 11 points clear. But the dam wall broke for the Lions in the second term and they could not repel the swarming Fremantle attacks. The Dockers kicked seven goals for the quarter, while Brisbane could not register a single score. At the long break, the margin was 56 points.

The talk at half time was of Brisbane becoming the first team in decades to go through a match without scoring a goal but Josh Green put those thoughts to rest with Brisbane's first major at the six-minute mark. Rohan Bewick kicked another six minutes later and to the Lions' credit, they remained largely competitive for the remainder of the match, the Dockers kicking six goals to three in the second half to run out victors by 14 goals.

Hayden Ballantyne followed up his six goals against Richmond with five this week, while Lachie Neale (34 disposals, seven tackles) and David Mundy (nine tackles and 26 possessions) also played fine games for the Dockers. For Brisbane, Tom Rockliff was outstanding with 45 touches and 12 tackles, while Jack Redden (15 tackles, 16 disposals) and Stefan Martin (nine tackles, 25 hitouts) were solid four-quarter performers.

The win enabled Fremantle to sneak into the top four at the expense of Geelong, who went down Gold Coast on the same day. The Dockers will look to consolidate that spot with a win over West Coast in next Saturday' Western Derby. The Lions, 17th on the ladder, only marginally ahead by percentage of bottom-placed St Kilda, will return home to the Gabba to face North Melbourne next Saturday night.

GOALS
Fremantle: Ballantyne 5; Pavlich 3; Barlow 2; Mayne, Suban, D. Pearce, Sandilands, Crowley
Brisbane Lions: Green, Bewick, Merrett

BEST - WATODAY.COM.AU
Fremantle: Mundy, Neale, Ballantyne, Barlow, Fyfe, Crowley
Brisbane: Rockliff, Redden, Patful, Mayes, Martin, Clarke

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Fremantle: Barlow, Fyfe, Neale, Sandilands, Crowley, Ballantyne
Brisbane Lions: Rockliff, Patfull, Taylor, Mayes

INJURIES
Fremantle: Nil
Brisbane Lions: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Fremantle: Clancee Pearce replaced Lee Spurr in the third quarter.
Brisbane: Tom Cutler replaced Darcy Gardiner in the third quarter.

UMPIRES: Farmer, Burgess, Armstrong

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Matthew Campbell, Dermott Brereton, Tony Shaw, Ben Dixon