This time I had actually made it to the match. I had tickets last year, only for personal family issues to prohibit me from going. A shame as that was an exciting 10 point win. Already from this sentence I have foreshadowed what will be written about the match and the whole experience for a North Melbourne supporter. While they are not going to be finals contenders, it is good to see them showing some positive signs for turning things around after what has been a rather frustrating and painful six seasons of being whipping boys during the regular season. However, there would be no positivity today as North Melbourne were reduced to mere roadkill at the hands of Fremantle who are looking mighty strong this season. Fremantle are going for their 11th win in a row and are looking like a massive contender for the 2026 premiership. Now I know that this could potentially be the kiss of death as Fremantle have been at the butt of many premiership jokes over their 31 year history, though I am sensing something is different here. It feels that they have been making strong moves to be far more physically and mentally tougher than before to finally grip both hands of the premiership cup and to finally unfurl the flag in Fremantle.
With that all said, the day was a lovely bright and sunny June lunchtime weather in Bunbury. The air was cool, crisp and a sharp winter's breeze rolling through. Making an ideal day for Aussie rules football down in the south west of the state to showcase AFL football. The ground was packed, over 13,000 were here and a healthy number of North Melbourne fans, though a huge contingent of Fremantle supporters had made their way from Perth as well as the surrounds to watch what would be a clinic from the premiership hot favourites.
The first quarter was a close affair with North Melbourne putting up a fight against Fremantle, then at the start of the second quarter it was very much still the same with North Melbourne pushing and remaining competitive. With them just nipping at the heels of the Dockers by just being a kick out of the contest. However around the 10 minute mark it all went horribly wrong for North Melbourne and the rest of the game was going to be an embarrassingly one sided affair.
The rest of the match was simply all Fremantle. They kicked 19, yes 19 unanswered goals and simply took North Melbourne to a clinic of how it should be done. They were simply disgraceful that I am without words to describe what had unfolded in front of my eyes. It was just a tragedy on such a massive scale that AFL pundit Garry Lyon described it best that it was just an incredible performance for a "Soft Club".
What does he mean by this? Well, despite North Melbourne showing determination and a dogged resilience, it is rather shallow and there are still too many times where the team gets wiped and belted by a huge margin. This occasion was Fremantle's biggest win over North Melbourne as well as their biggest winning margin in their 31 year history. It was just a train wreck that was just kick in the guts after another. It was simply excruciating to watch and quite possibly the worst football game I have ever seen across all levels of Aussie rules football.
Now we should get on with it and talk about the food. Now given that it is at Hands Oval in Bunbury, the nature of this was very different. As there were loads of people the queues for food and beverages was rather painful. But I could only imagine that this was an improvement over what had happened last year, though last year there were about 2 thousand people fewer so that might have played a role.
The queue for come curried German sausage on a bed of loaded cheese fries and diced bacon took 30 minutes to get and once I had them they were pretty decent, very filling and all I needed. This was 21 dollars and while I would think it would be too much, the portion of this was suitable and kept me going throughout the unfolding train wreck of a match. My colleague had the stuffed baked potato and that was a smaller line and should have perhaps gone with that as it was a nacho and chilli con carne flavour and was at 18 dollars.
The beers were mid strength and of course that was a bit of a downer, but thats the way it goes and for 12 dollars a pop for Carlton Dry and Great Northern, that stings to the already disappointing match that was unfolding in front of my aging and tired eyes. Though what worked well for the beer line is that the queue to buy tickets for beer is long, but the line to queue up to collect drinks was one quarter the size of the mammoth line. So this was very fast and very efficient as they were ran by the SWFL clubs volunteering their time to dish out mid strength beers and drinks.
Despite the murder at the hands of Fremantle, it was not a bad day to get out there and to watch some football. It was just a shame that the result was just so utterly lop-sided and was not a good spectacle for trying to promote AFL games in Bunbury. Though hopefully they can bounce back next week against West Coast and hopefully next year when they're in Bunbury, they can do much better and even win.
