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Winless North rue another missed chance against Dockers

FREMANTLE 2.3 2.6 4.10 9.13 (67)
NORTH MELBOURNE 2.3 6.5 7.7 9.8 (62)

GOALS - Fremantle: Langdon 2, McCarthy, Logue, Crozier, B. Hill, Grey, Johnson, Kersten. North Melbourne: Turner, Wood, Cunnington, Simpkin, Atley, Goldstein, Dumont, Brown, Hrovat
BEST - Fremantle: Mundy, Johnson, Fyfe, Sandilands, S. Hill, Hamling, Grey. North Melbourne: Cunnington, Williams, Dumont, Macmillan, Tarrant
Injuries - Fremantle: S. Hill (hamstring). North Melbourne: Goldstein (ankle)
Umpires: Harris, McInerney, Mollison
Crowd: 33,319 and Domain Stadium

For the second time in consecutive weeks Fremantle has found a way to win when four points looked unlikely, and for the third time in five rounds North Melbourne has given up a three-quarter-time lead to remain winless.

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Dockers stun Kangaroos at the death

Fremantle have claimed their third consecutive win, defeating North Melbourne 67-62 in Perth in a thriller that went down to the wire.

The Dockers trailed by 15 points at the final break at Domain Stadium on Saturday night, but kicked five goals to two in the last quarter to snatch a five-point win.

A Shane Kersten snap with 41 seconds remaining gave the Dockers the lead for the first time since the 20-minute mark of the first term.

It looked as though the Roos were finally going to hold on to a win, when Nathan Hrovat kicked a goal midway through the final term to steady his side. But once again, they were overrun in the final term.

North had led Geelong by 25 points in round two, only to lose by a single point. Frustrations were compounded after they gave up a two-point advantage against the Western Bulldogs last week and lost by three.

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Fremantle would have given themselves every chance of winning at the final break; playing at home and coming off two consecutive wins to kick-start their season.

Their chances of claiming a come-from-behind victory looked gone when Stephen Hill hobbled from the ground after suffering a hamstring injury with 15 minutes to go.

The agile midfielder had been the Dockers best with 24 touches, and still managed another possession while trying to get off the ground. Brady Grey kicked Fremantle's third for the term to get the margin back to a point, with 12 minutes still to go.

David Mundy stepped up for the Dockers to continue where Hill left off. He had 12 touches in the last term and most were telling. Probably more telling in terms of the final result was loss of Roos ruckman Todd Goldstein, who went down with an ankle injury.

The Roos ruckman got back on the ground, but the Dockers were in the ascendancy by then.

North will have left Perth sore and sorry for their efforts. Forward Ben Brown had had little impact for most of the game, kicking just one goal, early in the final term. He led the Roos goal scoring with a tally of 10 so far this season, but was held by Joel Hamling for most of the game, clearly carrying a leg injury for the second half.

North's Lindsay Thomas finished with just six touches and didn't contribute to the scoreboard either. Shaun Higgins was replaced by Hrovat before the game due to hamstring soreness. Captain Jack Ziebell will also be watched closely this week leading to next Sunday's clash with the Gold Coast at Etihad Stadium. Ziebell was well held by Connor Blakely in the opening half (to just nine touches) and finished with 17. But he copped a big knock to his knee just before half-time and clearly didn't have his usual run in the second half.

So the Dockers win a third consecutive game after a horrid start to the season. The forward line that had functioned so well in the previous fortnight, struggled in the first three quarters, but came good in the last. The Dockers had kicked the first two goals of the game, from Cam McCarthy and Ed Langdon. They came in the first 13 minutes of the game. However, they didn't score another one until the 13-minute mark of the third quarter.That ended a run of seven consecutive goals from North Melbourne and took the margin back to 23 points.

The two misses that hurt Fremantle were set shots from the boot of youngster Griffin Logue that came within five minutes of each other midway through the second term. They hurt because Shaun Atley took an uncontested mark in the Roos goal square two minutes after Logue's second shot and he didn't miss.

And Goldstein earned a free kick on the half-time siren to take the margin to 23 points at the main break.

Votes

9 S Hill (Fremantle)

9 D Mundy (Fremantle)

8 B Cunnington (North Melbourne)

8 M Johnson (Fremantle)

8 J McMillan (North Melbourne)