#AFLFreoDons Results and Report

What. The. Hell.

OK, Essendon and Fremantle were 7th and 8th coming into this contest, and feeling was that the Bombers would come away with the points. But rumblings on Twitter during the first quarter were that the visitors had a lot of work to do to even look like making a fist of it, with a score-line of 1.1 to 6.3 at the first break.

The rest of the game appears to have run the same course, with the Dons kicking 1.5, 3.1, and 4.3 in the next three quarters, in answer to the Dockers' 3.1, 4.2, 2.2. The final scores

Fremantle 6.3 9.4 13.6 15.8 (98)
Essendon 1.1 2.6 5.7 9.10 (64)

Scorers for the Dockers
M.Pavlich 3.1
H.Ballentine 2.2
M.Johnson 2.1
R.Crowley, T.Mzungu 2.0
K.Bradley 1.1
J.Griffin, C.Mayne, N.Fyfe 1.0
P.Duffield, Z.Clarke 0.1
rushed behinds 0.1

Scorers for the Dons
P.Ryder 4.0
L.Jetta 2.0
M.Hurley, T.Colyer 1.1
N.Lovett-Murray 1.0
D.Hille, H.Slattery, D.Myers, B.Howlett 0.1
rushed behinds 0.4

Next week, Fremantle (7th) has the Demons (currently 9th but facing the Pies tomorrow) in Melbourne, which could really go either way but I'll be backing the Ds. Essendon (now 8th) has North (now 12th) which by all rights they should win, but with all that seems to be going on, they probably won't. My tip'll be with the Kangas.

So what is happening at Windy Hill?! Up until Round 9 I considered them a contender for the top 4 with Carlton, the Cats, and the Pies, and think I've tweeted as much. Essendon have come up against a mixed-bag until then, facing
R1 Bulldogs 55pt win
R2 Swans 5pt loss
R3 Saints 52pt win
R4 Blues draw
R5 Pies 30pt loss
R6 Suns 139pt win
R7 Eagles 16pt win
R8 Lions 36pt win

But, for mine, the slide began in R9 with their 16 point loss to Richmond. You can read all the whats and whyfors in the paper: I didn't see it, but after the bye, they faced, and lost to, Melbourne by 33 points. The Dockers were an either-or proposition, and proved to be an or with this loss.

Can Hirdy pull something dramatic out of the fire, or is he, like Vossy, going to be looking for a new gig next year? Time will tell.