Slow Dockers Pay Penalty For Ignoring Youth

The Age

Monday March 24, 2008

Rohan Connolly

FREMANTLE wimped out against Collingwood. Not on the ground, where the Dockers at least continued to plug away on Saturday. But at the selection table the previous Thursday evening.

To successfully challenge a side as big on youthful zip as are the Magpies, the Dockers were going to need freshness, pace, and back-up. They went in with none of those qualities. Freo looked slow. And it looked old, the Pies boasting 10 players aged 21 or under, their opponent not one.

The Dockers could have picked highly rated draftee Rhys Palmer for his debut. They could have picked the club's quickest player, Garrick Ibbotson, impressive in pre-season games. They certainly could have picked young Robert Warnock as back-up for Aaron Sandilands.

Instead, it was the usual midfield suspects, with the usual results. Sandilands won three times as many hitouts as any opposing ruckman, yet the Dockers were comfortably beaten for clearances.

Sandilands had to carry too much of the ruck burden, and makeshift partner Michael Johnson was dragged away from his best defensive spot to be toweled at the bounces. It didn't make a lot of sense.

New coach Mark Harvey has to create some solid foundations for a traditionally flaky outfit. But his apparent insistence on experience and hardness at the expense of youth and run is leaving Fremantle short of the qualities that would over the longer term leave it much better placed to challenge the top dogs of the AFL.

Collingwood showed the Dockers the way. Unless there's a re-think this week, Hawthorn, another side brimming with youth, might hand out a lesson just as instructive.

© 2008 The Age

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