Fremantle coach Ross Lyon started with Tendai Mzungu as the spare man behind the ball and he monstered Port in the first half, repeatedly stopping them in their tracks. The Power looked baffled and appeared to be no chance when they fell 31 points behind late in the second term. But at the long break, Ken Hinkley manned up Freo's loose man with stunning results. Pushing six of his forwards up and leaving Robbie Gray isolated close to goal was the next masterstroke, with Gray booting four for the term and putting Port ahead at three-quarter time. "We just decided we needed to get it back to a contest," Hinkley said, explaining his tactics.

 

Freo saw all 50 shades of Gray in that blistering third term, one of the best individual quarters seen at either Subiaco Oval or Patersons Stadium. Four tackles, five possessions, four goals and too much class for whoever tried their luck. Chad Wingard was Port's other go-to man, with four goals. Fremantle had its own magic man in Michael Walters, whose second-half heroics were vital but alas not quite enough.

 

After winning the AFL Players Association’s MVP Award during the week, Nat Fyfe started like the jet he is against Port Adelaide. Two first-quarter goals and seven possessions kick-started his side. He finished strongly and was Freo's main midfield fighter late in the match, willing his side back when others were falling away.

 

Two of the best taggers in the business went to work on Saturday night with Kane Cornes going to Stephen Hill and Ryan Crowley taking on Travis Boak. Hill got the first kick of the match and, thanks to some help from his teammates and his side's early dominance, found enough of the ball to be a fine contributor. Boak had a nightmare early, failed to have a kick in the first half (four handballs) but the Power skipper never gave up and ended with 16 possessions - many of them important as his side finished all over the Dockers.

 

God help me, Ollie Wines is only 19. It was one of the better second halves you'll see from a teenager in a final. He put the exclamation point on his sterling game with two final-term goals, one of them a classic snap from the pocket which turned the game.  It was enough to chill Freo fans to the bone.

 

Wines’ late snap, Mzungu's dropped mark which led to a Matt White goal midway through the term, Hayden Crozier's spoil on Justin Westhoff which stopped Port kicking the sealer 15 minutes in, Matthew Pavlich's set-shot miss from 35m a minute later, Paul Duffield's big mark, Jay Schulz's run down tackle on Danyle Pearce … the big moments kept coming in a frenetic last term. But the biggest of all was Chad Wingard's snap 26 minutes into the final term which put Power 10 points up with just over four minutes left. As Ross Lyon said post-match "you've got to get it done … we left the door open."