A win at Kardinia

by NEIL BELFORD

THIS was an excellent but slightly odd game of football.

Geelong was behind almost all day, nonetheless the Cats played the whole game like they were winning, celebrating each goal like it was the sealer from about the second quarter onwards.

The silence that greeted Matthew Pavlich's mark 35 metres from goal with 20 seconds remaining had to be (not) heard to be believed, and Geelong coach Mark Thomson was so in denial about the mark and ensuing goal, he refused to accept that it was even part of the game.

In a very out-of-character post game performance Thomson was a sook. His team was beaten fair and square all day and he trotted out a couple of the weakest comments we have had from a coach all season. His lack of respect for Fremantle and its victory has gone largely unremarked in the media, which is interesting given that prior to the game ABC radio was asserting that Chris Connolly was looking for excuses for a loss before the game had even started.

The story of the day though, was Jeff Farmer. Another outstanding effort, the man personifies what is good about the Dockers, and he has done it week in week out despite the hasty rewrite that is going on in other papers about how he has recently 'come good'. Committed, accountable, skilful, fearless, with bookends of wizardry in the first and last quarters. It is worth keeping a copy of this game just to revisit his performance.

Like Michael Johnson a month earlier, the Ryan Crowley debut was very impressive, scoring a point and a goal with his first two kicks in the big league, and going on to kick a couple more classy goals However unlike Johnson he did it in the midst of a heroic victory. These two newcomers demonstrate that the football department at Fremantle is capable of developing good players by alternative mechanisms. Johnson hasn't taken a backward step, and Crowley certainly looks like he will play a lot more games under the anchor.

From the Fremantle Rooster.

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