After The Game v Sydney, Rd 16 2024 - With Snaps Truly

Footy does strange things to you, doesn’t it?

On Monday night, still bubbling with happiness I made an oddly benevolent suggestion to my beloved.

“Would you like to watch the third series of Bridgerton? No, really. I know you like it and it’s all a bit of fun.”

She looked at me warily. Was this a trap? Hadn’t I previously sighed heavily, sneered often and derided the show as Home and Away in Corsets?

Well not this night. We sat down to watch and within moments, bosoms were heaving and britches were unbuttoned. Theirs.

Of course.

I turned to my beloved.

“You know, I can’t believe how well Josh Treacy played yesterday.”

“Can we just watch?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said. “Sorry.”

All week I’ve beem obsessed about Josh and Jye and a Freo without Alex, playing the ladder leaders Sydney at home. A team which has won its last ten games.

We beat them there last year you know. But the last time we met, just a couple of months ago, we kicked 2.13 to three quarter time and lost.

Ignominiously.

Did we have it in us, to beat a top eight side? And the best one at that?

This time, we got off to an absolute flier.

Up against the much-vaunted Swans midfield of Grundy, the Milky Bar Kid Heeney, Gulden, and Warner, Freo dominated the clearances and burst forward with great purpose and daring.

It was evident right from the first bounce, as Switkowski found Amiss on the long lead. The Kid kicked the goal. Straight and true.

The Desert Pea, growing in stature every week, made it two and when Luke Jackson received a fifty-metre penalty, Freo had bolted to an eighteen-point advantage.

Sydney responded. McLean proved a little too tall for Ryan and a Brandon Walker turnover was dealt with clinically; but having absorbed a few moments of that pressure, Freo managed to take it up a notch.

A superb mark from Young was followed by an even better kick to Treacy, who made it four.

Desert Pea bobbed up with his second and then Remember The Name popped through Freo’s 6th for the quarter.

Were we done? Not quite. A Switkowski goal stretched the margin to 27 points.

A seven-goal opener.

Sydney often concede an early lead, but when Serong kicked Freo’s eighth goal, they had to respond quickly. And they did, through Campbell and Amartey.

Things tightened up after that.

Just before half time though, Fyfe, who had been ruining the Milky Bar Kid’s afternoon, found some ball of his own and with no option available to him, kicked a superb checkside to Amiss, who goaled again. Freo went to the main break with the 27-point advantage intact.

Excellent stuff.

What an explosive third quarter. Papley got the Swans off to a fast start before a soft downfield free kick gave Sturt his third.

When I say soft, I mean soft but fair. Play on.

O’Meara with great poise, pushed the margin out to 32 points before McLean took a clunker to close it up again.

Hayward had been unsighted. Until now. He kicked Sydney’s next two.

A beautiful piece of patient football saw Wagner deliver to Amiss, who kicked his third and Treacy and Darcy both goaled to ensure Freo stayed in front.

Darcy was beating Grundy. Darcy is finding some great form.

But the Swans were coming hard. In what was a terrific shootout, Sydney kicked seven goals to five for the quarter and ominously, scores to Papley and McInnerney closed the margin to just 12 points at the final change.

Could Freo hang on against the best team in footy?

How do I find the words?

Sydney came roaring back in the final quarter and thanks to the brilliant run and dash of Nick Blakey they looked likely to overwhelm the tiring visitors.

Hayward goaled, Blakey got another and a dubious free kick enabled McDonald to equal the score.

There were four minutes to play.

Through sheer will and brilliant defensive footy Freo managed to win back the ball and scrounge a one-point advantage.

But in the dying seconds, Sydney’s Logan McDonald took a mark and, as the siren sounded, went back to kick the winner or at least the point to tie the game.

The same Logan McDonald Freo was interested in at the start of season 2024.
The same Logan McDonald we are rather fond of now, for rather different reasons.

He shanked the kick.

Badly.

No score.

At all.

Freo had beaten the only unbeaten team in footy by a point.

What an effort.

What an achievement. And for a short time at least, third place on the ladder is ours.

With delirious passion, my beloved and I hugged and kissed and declared our intention to watch more Bridgerton on Monday night.

Oh Freo. To borrow a line from Anthony Bridgerton –
“You are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires.”

Yours truly,

Snaps Truly.

By our multi-talented and amazingly insightful footy scribe, SNAPS TRULY. Snaps has seen and done it all. He may or may not have been a fringe player at Fremantle. Don’t miss Snaps’ report after each Freo Dockers match here on the Shipping News throughout the 2024 season. Here are Snaps’ other 2024 season reports.

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