Sandilands, Tiger tamerMark Duffield, Perth
The Age
August 19, 2012 FREMANTLE 3.4 7.8 10.12 13.16 (94)
RICHMOND 2.3 5.4 8.4 11.6 (72)
GOALS
Fremantle: Ballantyne 3, Pavlich 3, De Boer 2, Mayne, Bradley, Walters, Hill, Mzungu.
Richmond: King 3, Deledio 2, Riewoldt 2, O'Hanlon, White, Nahas, Edwards.
BEST
Fremantle: Mundy, Ballantyne, Sandilands, De Boer, Pavlich.
Richmond: Cotchin, Tuck, King, Post, Martin.
UMPIRES Findlay, McInerney, Margetts.
CROWD 32,721 at Subiaco.
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HOW quickly we forget. Aaron Sandilands, a ruck behemoth just 18 months ago, was being touted by some quarters as trade bait until he gave football fans in general, and Richmond and Fremantle in particular, a very timely reminder of his talents at Patersons Stadium.
Picked as an emergency, and then rushed into the team minutes before the bounce after ruckman Jon Griffin pulled up with a sore groin, Sandilands played a dominant first half, then hung on to finish the match as the Dockers ground their way to a 13.16 (94) to 11.6 (72) over Richmond.
It meant a tenuous grip on 8th spot, which will be tested further next weekend against North Melbourne.
For Richmond, the unlikely fairy tale of a late run at the eight is dead. Someone failed to tell Trent Cotchin though, Richmond's remarkable young midfield defying the loss to be this game's best player, running up a stunning 32 possessions in Perth's winter heat.
In the end though, the Dockers numbers did him in. Sandilands dominated the first half and was still a force after half time.
Hayden Ballantyne and Matthew Pavlich kicked three goals each, and David Mundy, Michael Barlow and Matt de Boer all had impact during the match.
Richmond, the team that came to the ground to live by the motto ''You only live once (but you can finish 9th six times in 18 years)'', were up for the battle early, putting the screws on Fremantle's bids to move the ball from defence and cashing in on their turnovers.
Pavlich might have kicked the first goal of the game after a good old-fashioned coat hanger from Alex Rance in a marking contest, but the Tigers kicked the next two and they both came from bad Fremantle turnovers - Jake King benefited from an errant Clancee Pearce handball, then it was King handballing over the top to Jack Riewoldt for a goal after Kepler Bradley could not find the handle on a loose ball rolling at half back.
It took the Dockers until the 23rd minute of the term to get their second goal, but by the time they kicked it, they had a stranglehold on Richmond's ball movement. Matt de Boer pounced.
Richmond were gridlocked every time they looked to move the ball from their defence, hamstrung by diminishing confidence in their own skills and Fremantle's increasing belief that they could get them to turn the ball over.
But the Dockers had a couple of problems of their own. Skipper Pavlich had been in the wars in the first quarter and it started to take its toll. Kneed in the hamstring by teammate Bradley in a marking contest, Pavlich started to drag the leg badly in the second quarter.
Speaking of Bradley, he was giving something of a dubious masterclass in turning scoring opportunities into nothing, missing from the top of the goal square, then falling when in a position to dish to Ballantyne minutes later, then spraying a shot on the run later still.
Meanwhile, what few positive forward thrusts Richmond could muster were being driven by Cotchin, who was giving a more conventional masterclass in hard ball winning and brilliant ball use.
In the end the Dockers shut the gate by kicking three of the first four goals of the final term. Pavlich got his third, so did Ballantyne, and Bradley finally got one.
The Dockers were home by 22 points and Richmond's finals hopes were completely gone.
A TALL STORYAaron Sandilands was named as an emergency, and looked destined to remain an emergency until Fremantle ruckman Jon Griffin came off the ground after the team's final warm-up and complained of a tweak in his groin. Coach Ross Lyon insisted that his team had not run an elaborate ruse when it named Sandilands as an emergency. The big man played, and was a dominant influence in his team's opening half, gathering 14 possessions and 17 hitouts.
IN THE WARSOne's a champ and one's a journeyman but Matthew Pavlich and Jake King were the two most banged-up bodies on the ground by half-time. Pavlich had been kneed in the hamstring by teammate Kepler Bradley, coat-hangered by Tiger Alex Rance and then nearly strained himself through a goal post before quarter-time. King had been cleaned up by Dockers Zac Dawson and Nat Fyfe - the latter delivering an accidental knock to that spot where men hate to get accidental knocks.
BETTER THAN BEN THOUGHBut both of them were faring better than Tiger Ben Griffiths, who knocked himself out when he crashed to the ground after a ruck duel in the first term. Griffiths was carried off the ground to warm applause - no surprise after public disquiet over a couple of fools who had thrown abuse at Tom Hawkins in the West Coast-Geelong game on August 10.
http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/afl-news/sandilands-tiger-tamer-20120818-24fia.html#ixzz23vZXlVhH
