The Dongers don't have respect

[westy]

It's the game we've been waiting almost a decade for. The game the AFL envisaged, while they were dishing out number one draft picks at the turn of the century, would change the very face of football itself. The top of the table clash between Fremantle and St Kilda. Fremantle and the Saints have had some feroccious battles in recent years, most have which have seen Fremantle screwed over in some way, but now both sides are at the top of their game, battling it out for top spot in one of the biggest matches of the season so far. St Kilda's cheating this year should be spectacular.


It wasn't a pretty affair when Fremantle met St Kilda this time last year. In a gamble that didn't pay off, Mark Harvey decided he would rest all his forwards. At a slippery Telstra Dome, against hostile umpires, Fremantle put up a fair defence in what was always an AFL House pre-determined win to Princess Riewoldt's Saints. Fremantle dominated in every area bar their kicking, handballing and ability to organise a score. They kept the Saints score to just over the 100 point mark, unfortunately two goalless quarters saw their own score just slightly above average for a soccer team, losing by 83 points 17.9 (111) to 4.4 (28). Princess Vhitey managed 5 goals, each more suspicious than the last. Fremantle couldn't manage quite that many with Pavlich, Solomon, Johnson and Hasleby kicking one each. Freo did have a win with the disposals though, Byron Schammer got 32 touches while the Saints best was Nick Dal Santo with 31. Michael Johnson still managed to controversially beat Schammer for the three Clinton Wolf Medal votes while Paul Duffield picked up the single.

The year earlier, Fremantle didn't have much more luck against the Saints. They thought their best chance was going to be in Round 20 when the Saints made a rare appearance at Subiaco Oval but in more suspicious circumstances than usual, St Kilda powered home to a victory worthy of a Chinese swimmer. Fremantle had the Saints measure in the first half, despite a display of umpiring that only occasionally crossed paths with the rule book, with the 4 point lead flattering the Saints. But after half time, the Dockers unveiled "Operation Finish Lower than Port" and packed it up for the day. giving St Kilda an 43 point victory. New Zealand's Adam Campbell kicked 3 goals for Fremantle while Vhitey chipped in with his standard 5 assisted goals. Lenny Hayes had 30 touches for the Saints while a youngster by the name of Rhyce Palmer managed 30 for the other side.

In Round 13, it was typical St Kilda. Once again, the rules and St Kilda kept a loose association with an umpiring effort to rival any of St Kilda's previous attempts at cheating preventing what should have been a courageous win by an undermanned Dockers. From the moment the siren sounded, the free kicks flew thick and fast and very few bared any resemblance to the anything mentioned in the laws of the game. Matthew Pavlich fought on, despite being pinged for showing up to the game in the same number as the umpire, kicking 5 goals and leading from the front. Taking time to adjust to the rules and the ice rink like surface, Fremantle fought back from 27 points down early in the game to put their nose in front in the third quarter but the whistle blowers returned to help their mates over the line, once again, and manufacture another narrow St Kilda win in highly suspicious circumstance.

As usual, Nick Riewoldt benefited most from the free kicks and was handed 3 goals. Robert Harvey didn't shy away from a free either, getting 31 touches as the old man was given free rein to pick up junk stats. Rhys Palmer had stacks of the ball for Fremantle but couldn't work his way into the highly controversial Clinton Wolf Medal votes, with Pavlich, Solomon and Garrick Ibbotson getting the honours.

While the Saints have had some 'luck' over the Dockers in recent times, you don't have to go back too far to find some one sided paddlings, one of which ended the reign of Grant Thomas - an event which many point to as evidence that Fremantle are responsible for St Kilda's current run of form.

At the end of 2006, the Dockers ripped St Kilda to shreds to lock away a final and storm into the top 4 in what was to be win number 7 of their 9 game streak. St Kilda kicked a couple of early goals but Fremantle put up an impenetrable defence and the Saints didn't trouble the scorer again until the umpire fixed them up for a couple after half time. Fremantle had no trouble scoring though, kicking 17 for the day and winning by 58 points. 4 of those goals came from Jeff Farmer, 3 from Matthew Pavlich and 3 from Shaun McManus. Big Fraser Gehrig managed an umpire assisted 2. The top ball getter for Fremantle was a singing centre half back by the name of Luke McPharlin while Robert Harvey had the most of it for St Kilda. The umpires gave their votes to Shaun McManus, Peter Bell and Brett Peake.

Fremantle were in red hot form back then but they dished out a similar treatment, under the bright lights of Friday night football in 2007. St Kilda attempted to cheat once again, with dodgy umpiring decisions and even more suspicious goal umpiring but they were still no match for the half strength Dockers. Freo had the game sewn up by quarter time, running rings around St Kilda before a more measured second and third quarter with a five goal final quarter burst to finish them off, winning by 46 points. Pavlich, Bell and Tarrant all kicked 3 goals with nothing but singles coming from the St Kilda players. Paul Hasleby, Peter Bell and Luke Mcpharlin had a ridiculous amount of the footy, while Nick Dal Santo managed a moderate best performance for St Kilda. The Clinton Wolf Medal voting committee liked the work of Peter Bell, Paul Hasleby and Michael Johnson ... in controversial circumstances.

You may remember another match between Fremantle and St Kilda. There was some confusion over the result. Well, there wasn't much confusion at the Fremantle end - they knew they'd won, but for some reason a couple of the St Kilda punks were under the impression the game was drawn (if you look in enough injecting rooms you'll probably find some who still think it should have been). It was an odd day. The siren sounded, the Freo players started celebrating a win but the umpires let play go on for another 10 seconds so St Kilda could kick a point and draw the game. Even then, after St Kilda had botched the attempt to steal the game, the umpires gave them a free kick to let them steal it again. They botched that one too and it was still a "draw". Days of trying to justify the unjustifiable followed until finally the AFL stepped in and gave Fremantle their points back.

Lost in the fog of cheating was the fact that it had been a pretty good game of footy. The Dockers returned to Tasmania after failing against the Hawks there just a month earlier and ran rings around what was then a very fancied St Kilda outfit. After getting out to a match winning lead in the last quarter, Freo put the queue back in the rack before a string of incomprehensible umpiring decisions, followed by the siren fiasco, saw the Saints get within cheating distance. Matthew Pavlich kicked a lazy 6 goals from his 21 disposals, Jeff Farmer kicked 3. Fraser Gehrig managed to sneak through 3 as well for the Saints. The top ball getters were Ball and Bell with 26 touches each. Still rattled by the goings on, the umpires gave votes to Matthew Pavlich and Josh Carr with Vossy’s brother stealing the one . The Clinton Wolf Medal committee went the way of Matthew Pavlich, Byron Schammer and Antoni Grover.

There was controversy in Tasmania a year earlier too when St Kilda last beat Fremantle - Round 2, 2005. After a neck and neck battle for most of the day, Freo got a mini break in the last quarter but the Launceston Flu struck again with a late fight back from the Saints, a couple of brain explosions and a one of the worst umpiring decisions Tasmania had seen to that point lost the Dockers the lead in the final minutes, seeing them go down by a solitary point - St Kilda 8.11 (59) to Fremantle 8.10 (58). Paul Medhurst copped some flak for not passing to Des Headland in the final minutes but still booted 3 goals for the match. The ever reliable Peter Bell had 28 touches, Lenny Hayes had 29 for the Saints and topped their scoring with 2 goals.

You may also remember another close match when Fremantle played St Kilda at Subiaco Oval later that year. In scenes from a bad Hollywood movie, Justin Longmuir rose above a pack of 13 other players in front of a packed Subiaco Oval on a Friday night, to take the mark of the decade, a handful of seconds before the siren. He took his kick, split the middle of the goals, the crowd went spastic and Freo won by 5 points. Obviously Paul Hasleby had the most of the footy, racking up is standard 31 touches. For the Saints, Robert Harvey got rid of the ball 25 times. On the goal kicking front, Luke McPharlin, Matthew Pavlich and Fraser Gehrig all bagged 4. The umpires liked the work of Hasleby and Harvey giving them the 3 and 2 votes respectively, with Leigh Montagna taking home the 1. In laughable scenes, the Saints tried to claim after the match that the umpires had cheated despite an even free kick count. an inquiry was launched to stop Grant Thomas from balling his eyes out Maxy Hudghton style, but in the end was dismissed as just another bit of St Kilda sooking.

This week, Fremantle head to east to play St Kilda in Melbourne at Eddie's Hat Stadium. It hasn't been a happy hunting ground over the years for the Dockers with the never beating St Kilda on the ice like surface. Fremantle have however played at Eddie's Hat three times this year, winning one pre-season game and one regular game, including breaking a long losing streak against the Bombers with a 44 point win in Round 2.

The Saints have played their last two games at Eddie's Hat and have won them both. Last week they took on Collingwood and were lucky to get away with the win while the weekend before that they smashed the Kangaroos - but who wouldn't smash the Kangaroos at the moment...oh, ah, sorry West Coast supporters (better take another Valium). Unfortunately for the Saints, their win over the Magpies saw them lose Nick Riewoldt hamstring injury which will cost the Saints any chance they had of winning a flag this decade. The Saints are undefeated and are on top of the ladder thanks to an easy draw and a swag of percentage.

Last week Fremantle rolled the reigning premiers, Geelong as they crossed the halfway point of the start of the toughest draw ever known to man. The 7 point win followed thrashings of Adelaide and Essendon and has Fremantle equal top on the ladder.

[iwantmeseats]

What a load of badly written garbage.

9/10 for the cringeworthy attempts at humour! Eddie's hat? Give me a spell.

They are certainly getting getting into their bath water over there it seems.

[Griggsy]

ATTENTION: FOR ALL NON WA RESIDENTS, I GIVE YOU WHAT I HAVE TO SEE ON A DAILY BASIS.

This is no Dave86, thats for sure.

Living in WA gives me the painful experience of seeing the jubilant dockers fans celebrate their 3 wins. Dusting off their dockers paraphernalia, surely just to put them back next week to collect some more.

But hey, they can enjoy their clubs personal best start to a season, they deserve it. hope they dont delude themselves too much.

"Last week Fremantle rolled the reigning premiers" Funniest part of the post . Shouldnt it read, "scraped over the line in the dying moments of a home game while Geelong was crippled by the loss of 3 of their most structually important players."

[degruch]

ATTENTION: FOR ALL NON WA RESIDENTS, I GIVE YOU WHAT I HAVE TO SEE ON A DAILY BASIS.

This is no Dave86, thats for sure.

Living in WA gives me the painful experience of seeing the jubilant dockers fans celebrate their 3 wins. Dusting off their dockers paraphernalia, surely just to put them back next week to collect some more.

But hey, they can enjoy their clubs personal best start to a season, they deserve it. hope they dont delude themselves too much.

"Last week Fremantle rolled the reigning premiers" Funniest part of the post . Shouldnt it read, "scraped over the line in the dying moments of a home game while Geelong was crippled by the loss of 3 of their most structually important players."

Scarlett, Ottens, Mooney, don't forget Rooke. Did Milburn play, or is he injured? Meh, let the Haze supporters have their moment, we of all supporters, must know how they feel. I just hope for your sake, we beat 'em this weekend!

[TriColourDisciple]

Where was this published Westy? In any of your papers? Surely this wasn't written by a real journalist.

[WaggaSaint]

perspective people... it's round four against the dockers.

It's a good chance for us to sort out a new structure against 'in form' opposition.

[degruch]

Where was this published Westy? In any of your papers? Surely this wasn't written by a real journalist.

It's a piss-take from a fan site.

[mick13]

I'm sure this was written tongue in cheek kids. Don't rip into them too much... No sane man could argue we were lucky to beat Freo last time.

Should be a good game.

[St Michele]

ATTENTION: FOR ALL NON WA RESIDENTS, I GIVE YOU WHAT I HAVE TO SEE ON A DAILY BASIS.

This is no Dave86, thats for sure.

Living in WA gives me the painful experience of seeing the jubilant dockers fans celebrate their 3 wins. Dusting off their dockers paraphernalia, surely just to put them back next week to collect some more.

But hey, they can enjoy their clubs personal best start to a season, they deserve it. hope they dont delude themselves too much.

"Last week Fremantle rolled the reigning premiers" Funniest part of the post . Shouldnt it read, "scraped over the line in the dying moments of a home game while Geelong was crippled by the loss of 3 of their most structually important players."

I live in Wa too and actually went to the game last week, Freo played really well and deserved the win for me I would much rather hear about Freo winning than the Eagles. this week will be a tough hard game for both teams but I think we (the saints) will win.

[I Love Peter Kiel]

I hope your tongue is in your cheek Westy. That is a joke.

[saintsRrising]

I hope your tongue is in your cheek Westy. That is a joke.

Westy would not have written it. He is Saint through and through.

It is probably taken from the Dockers Forum, or similar. Hence the thread title.

(But yes a introductory sentence would have made this clearer)

[matty]

and ppl i know wonder why i hate the dockers nearly as much as the crows. they say i should pity them... never... cant wait to smash them.

CARN SAINTS !!!!

[True Blue Sainter]

One of the lamest, yet somehow humorous things I have read on this site.

How terribly one-eyed. I love his dismissal of the Head scandal...I stopped taking it seriously in the 2nd sentence when he mentioned that St. Kilda & Freo have had some "ferocious" battles in recent times with Freo being screwed over.

LOL.

[Armoooo]

Don't worry guys it's all just a joke.

I must admit, they're getting better every time we play them.

I actually enjoy the 'character' they've created for St Kilda, it's just a shame Princess Vhitey wont be playing for us this week :(:(

[The Peanut]

Westy would not have written it. He is Saint through and through.

http://www.dockerland.com/index.php/Lat ... -2010.html

[InkerSaint]

Yes, don't waste your energy getting worked up, it is heavily tongue in cheek.

And you can hardly blame them - the crap efforts and inexplicable fade-outs the fans have had to endure for years on end.

Have a laugh. This week's match should be a cracker - the Dockers are looking great, and I loved watching them wipe the smug grins off the Catters' faces last Sunday.

[St Michele]

Westy would not have written it. He is Saint through and through.

http://www.dockerland.com/index.php/Lat ... -2010.html

I didn;t realise that had come from Dockerland. The guy who runs it is a joke--- he bans anyone who says anything negative aboutt he dockers or for that matter anyone who has an opinion he doesn;t agree with.. no decent Docker fan goes near it.

[westy]

I hope your tongue is in your cheek Westy. That is a joke.

Westy would not have written it. He is Saint through and through.

It is probably taken from the Dockers Forum, or similar. Hence the thread title.

(But yes a introductory sentence would have made this clearer)

Sorry! You are dead right. I pinched from 'dockerland' Those docker fans do have a sense of humour and it might be written tongue in cheek but they are serious none the less. I wish I could get over to Etihad Stadium and watch the lads wipe the smiles from the dockers faces

[Griggsy]

I wish I could get over to Etihad Stadium and watch the lads wipe the smiles from the dockers faces

I just look forward to seeing less purple in the streets and shopping centres