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Dockers serve up derby doozy with a wooden spoon

By Mr Dandalooa

The wooden spoons were out in force yesterday in what was a massive win for Fremantle in the Western Derby.

The Dockers have narrowed the gap in terms of derby wins against cross-town foes the West Coast Eagles, as fifth-placed Dockers have won the last 7 derbies.

There was passion, excitement, and entertainment in the air at Subiaco Oval, where more than 40,000 footy punters prepared to witness the Eagles’ shellacking.

But as some fans told FootyGoss after the game, few were prepared for the onslaught that would follow.

The Dockers kept West Coast goalless in the first term and it was well into the second that they managed to get a major on the board.

Fremantle were accurate, delivered basic ball skills, and looked like the purple haze of rounds 2, 3 and 4.

I’m not sure how Aaron Sandilands managed to get the Glendinning medal, I personally thought that if Hayden Ballantyne would be overlooked then surely Paul Haselby deserved his fifth.

Sadly though, though the 7.6 13.8 18.12 24.16 (160) to 0.3 4.4 9.5 13.7 (85) thrashing was tempered by another injury to veteran defender Chris Tarrant, who was taken off in the first quarter with suspected medial ligament damage to his knee.

He is likely to miss about four weeks but the club is hopeful of getting him back in time for the finals.

The Eagles fragility continued when defender Shannon Hurn was out with a hamstring injury before the opening bounce.

Will Schofield assumed kick-in duties and by all accounts did a poor job.

The Dockers had a field day in taking advantage.

West Coast coach John Worsfold refuses to concede that a potential wooden spoon finish will be a motivation for his side’s remaining matches.

The Eagles coughed up their highest ever score in Sunday’s 75-point loss.

It was their biggest ever defeat as Freo capitalised on costy Eagles errors out of defence and through the middle.

“I want to teach these players to motivate themselves to want to be the best that they can be, and to not always rely on a gimmick, because you’ll get to an important game one day and run out of gimmicks. That’s a big trap,” Worsfold said.

“[The wooden spoon] has always been irrelevant other than it’s pretty disappointing to be at the bottom of the ladder. We’ve got to stay focused on what we want to achieve going forward and we’ve got four tough weeks ahead to show to each other that we aren’t just playing out time.”

“We were outgunned really from the start with the intensity and we couldn’t claw our way back into it. It was disappointing to get going like we did and just cough the ball up. That was probably the big thing, the midfield turnovers.

“The difference in the inside 50s (41-62) was around the turnovers, not so much the stoppages.”