Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

The first Western Derby for 2008

We're up to the third round in the 2008 AFL football season and I haven't mentioned the Fremantle Dockers so far. That's because they weren't very inspiring in the first two matches and notched up a couple of non-victories.

I think the arch rivals, the West Coast Eagles had losses too, but I didn't pay much attention to them, other than to read the latest newspaper reports of how they are endeavouring to ride out the drug scandals which destroyed their wholesome image last year.

In light of the shame, all Eagles players are now under close scrutiny - physical and mental fitness is the only means allowed to achieve results. The club is on notice from the AFL that if there is any more hanky panky then it's going to be in really big trouble. Drug cheats are seriously a big no no.

Even so, they still manage to attract adverse publicity. The West Australian newspaper recently published photos of Eagles players urinating on a football ground during a training session. It's not good for the grass.

Yesterday was the first Derby of the season between Fremantle and the Eagles. Thankfully the Eagles players remembered to go to the lav before running out onto the field.

It was a good match for Fremantle, they led the score at the end of every quarter and came home victorious at the end. Those of us watching on TV at home were thrilled to see Eagles fans departing the stands during the final quarter. They'd given up on their heroes and were looking very glum.

During the game it seemed every one of the Eagles fans was screaming abusive advice to players on the ground in the naive belief it would be heeded. Dockers fans on the other hand seemed to be more supportive of Fremantle players, even in times of adversity.

There's a bizarre ticketing scheme for Derby matches. Each club takes turns at having a majority of tickets for sale to fans. Yesterday it was the Eagles turn, so the great majority of fans in the stands were booing Eagles gazobs. Even so, only about 33,000 seats were filled. It think the figures are usually much higher when its Fremantle's turn. More colourful and better behaved too.

Fremantle's brilliant Aboriginal player Jeff Farmer, who had some sensational off field alcohol fuelled incidents last year to damage his reputation, yesterday proved that the switch to orange juice and clean living has had positive benefits for his playing. If his performance yesterday was anything to go by, then he's going to have a great 2008 season.

But the man of the match was Fremantle's Matthew Pavlich. He uses a lot of Elastoplast and kicks a lot of goals. I always grumble with him when he misses a goal.

This great victory photo of the Fremanle team was in The Sunday Times this morning. The final score was Fremantle 12.15 (87) to Eagles 10.13 (73).

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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