It wouldn't be a Freo game without a word from the nutjobs on Dockerland 
Dockerland Match Preview: v Richmond Written by Shane Richmond
The dregs of society, the lowest of the low, the scum of the AFL come to town this week. And Ben Cousins will be joined by his team mates from Richmond too. The Tigers are suffering a run of outs that seems to have lasted for 30 years or so and, while many would expect them to be hungry for a win, they really just want Philip Nitschke to come along and show them how to put a plastic bag over their heads. Still, it's polite to pretend the Tigers have a chance so Fremantle will play a long just like everyone else, give the Richmond supporters a tiny bit of hope in the early stages before ripping their hearts out, showing it to them then stomping over it like Steven Dodd on an unsuspecting Damon White.
They're a funny pack over at Punt Road. You might be able to remember back to the summer. Fremantle and Richmond were drawn to open their season in the Tautologically Named Bank Cup. Richmond supporters lined the roads, streets and highways from the MCG to Subiaco Oval throwing rose petals at the feet of their team and their new messiah, the disrepute bringing recruit from the West Coast Eagles. Trumpets sounded, new born babies were brought out to be blessed by them, the entire country was swept up in Richmond fever (not to be confused with Richmond flu - symptoms of which involve nausea, vomiting and dysentery principally caused by reading these match previews).
Their membership was at an all time high, times were good and everyone was glad to see it, not just Richmond supporters. After years and years and years of being the laughing stock of the competition holding up the top eight and sacking coaches merely for sport, they were telling us that they were finally ready to enter polite society again and compete at Aussie Rules Football.
It came on the back of a sensational finish to the 2008 season which saw them win 8 games in the second half of the season and restored them to their birthright - ninth position. It was a great triumph for the Tigers. Despite Terry Wallace's 5 year plan not involving recruiting any young talent, poaching any stars from opposition clubs, revolutionising the game with brilliant new tactics or even working really hard, the leather faced skin cancer incubator had bloody well done it. Sure, they had the easiest draw since the war and most other teams out of the top eight were competing for the services of Daniel Rich, Stephen Hill and that tall bloke with the lollipop but, in their eyes, it was an example of just what you can accomplish if you bunker down, put your nose to the grindstone and do absolutely nothing. The feeling around Punt Rd was that Steve Bradbury's biggest mistake was that he didn't kick on to Turin in 2006.
This new found sense of optimism and hope has swept through the entire Richmond Football Club. From idiot Smith himself all the way down to the club scatologist. So much so that, despite no one being able to name a half decent player from the 38 midfielders they've cobbled together this century, they felt it was time to do a bit of topping up with a bit of experience. Carlton did it with Chris Judd and look where it took them to (eleventh). So, they headed over to Woosha's House of Used Captains and did a deal on a barely used drug addict with a history of criminal behavior and hamstrings so weak he wouldn't even use them to tie off before shooting up.
Many were sceptical about Richmond's decision to try and tame a bloke who'd gone so far off the rails that even the West coast Eagles didn't want him but it's proven to be a winner. Not so much for the Tigers who've seen their star recruit spending most of the season on the sidelines - something which was eerily predicted last year by...well, pretty much everyone - but for Ben Cousins it's been a big win.
The Richmond Football Club are so irrelevant to the rest of the country that Cousins this week was on the radio promoting the narcotics industry and the benefits of getting off your nut on pain killers and nobody even bothered to pull him up on it. When he was in Perth, he went to the effort of keeping his love for mind altering substance a secret for ten years and they kicked him out of the competition. Now he's with the Tigers he's doing PR for drug dealers and getting laughs in the process.
But despite Richmond's obvious problems, Fremantle's hatred for Ben Cousins and all who've come into contact with him without punching him (as well as Daniel Kerr) and the imminent sacking of Terry Wallace, Fremantle are faced with a genuine worry this weekend.
There's a bit of a competition going on among AFL clubs at the moment as to who can get the Richmond supporters hopes up the most before brutally crushing them. There have been some outstanding performances this season but Essendon set the bar at a new high last week with their fifty odd point turn around which broke the average Richmond supporter to the point that, all around the MCG, they were actually bursting out in tears like a St Kilda forward.
It's not the sort of thing that can easily be topped and Fremantle are faced with a Sophie's choice type situation as a result.
You may be aware that the Dockers aren't in any danger of getting a nose bleed from their position on the ladder at the moment. Wins are important but the fickle equation that makes up percentage is also shaping up to give some Fremantle a they approach September.
So Fremantle have two options. They can play the Bombers' style game of build them up and bring them down, which Fremantle have done so well with the Eagles this season; or they can take the high road, play their best from siren to siren and crush the Tigers into the ground, beating them by a margin which is sure to see Terry Wallace's contract terminated and bring some relief to the tortured Richmond supporters.
They're both excellent options and Mark Harvey and his match committee have no doubt had more than one sleepless night over the decision. Do they let Pavlich off the leash to run riot all over the ground, give Brett Peake a license to have a ping from the centre square, send Dean Solomon on a mission of bone crushing and tell Luke Mcpharlin to bring down a couple of speckies a quarter or do they let the Togers tire themselves out flooding for the first half before putting Stephen Hill and Paul Hasleby to work in the second, getting the ball out of the middle then handing it to random blokes in the forward line on a platter. Who'd be a coach.
At the end of the day though, while Fremantle can be proud to have done their part, football will be the winner no matter which manner Fremantle go about beating the Tigers this Saturday night.
http://www.dockerland.com/match-preview/match-preview-v-richmond.html
