Tarrant Consigned To Bench After Poor Show Against His Old Club

The Sunday Age

Sunday March 23, 2008

Martin Boulton And Carly Jellet

FORMER Collingwood forward Chris Tarrant struggled against his former old club yesterday, but Fremantle coach Mark Harvey spared him any hasty criticism.

The heavily pro-Magpie crowd enjoyed jeering their once favourite son, who transferred to Fremantle last year after nine years in black and white.

Shane Wakelin, in his 233rd match, kept Tarrant to three kicks and three handballs.

"In the end I had to put Luke McPharlin up there and he kicked three goals," Harvey said.

"We had a lot of inside 50s in the first quarter and we didn't capitalise on that . . . some of the forwards have to find form."

He said Tarrant's disappointing performance in the opening round would be reflected upon and his form judged in the coming weeks.

"He just couldn't get into it today.

"You like your forwards to be in the game constantly, that's what you'd like. I mean to look back and say 'If he'd kicked that goal it might have been a different story'."

The 27-year-old finished with just one behind for the day and three uncontested marks.

"We had our opportunities, we had more inside-50s than them (and) there was a goal in it at three-quarter-time," Harvey said.

Tarrant, noted for his strong marking, was recruited by the Dockers in a bid to give captain Matthew Pavlich more room to move up the ground.

He kicked 33 goals last year from 21 matches.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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