Dockers Hold Off Dogs | AFANA

The undermanned Fremantle Dockers made a statement in the fourth quarter as they held off the hard running Western Bulldogs to win their second game of the season. If games were won on statistics alone, the Dogs were the winners. The visitors had more possessions, more marks, more inside 50s (getting the ball into the attacking fifty-meter arc), more hitouts, and more contested possessions, but fell short by sixteen points. This was despite the Dockers having only one player left on the bench in the final quarter. At the first bouncedown the temperature sat at a humid eighty-four ºF, but the pace of the match rarely slowed. The Dogs started hot and dominated most of the opening quarter by launching nineteen attacks to the Dockers' nine. The Dogs' early strength came from their clearances at stoppages and the mobility of Sam Darcy up forward. Darcy had ten possessions in the first quarter and booted two goals. The Docker defenders stood firm with Brennan Cox and Luke Ryan working well in the air and Jordan Clark supplying run or desperate play on the last line of defense.