MATT Burgan looks at some of the key stats, moments and stories to emerge from round five

McDonald keeps on keeping on

Melbourne might have produced its most disappointing performance of the season, but key defender Tom McDonald continued to stand up with his All-Australian-like form. McDonald was rated Melbourne’s best player, according to Champion Data, and he battled manfully against a strong Fremantle line-up. But the impressive young tall wasn’t satisfied, when he spoke to Dee TV post-match: “I thought I competed. It was a different role. We put Dunny (Lynden Dunn) on Pav (Matthew Pavlich), because we thought he’d do the job on him. He (Dunn) did a good job, but he (Pavlich) got subbed off anyway, so he didn’t get a real crack at him. We thought with the height of their ruckman, it might be more suited to me and I thought I was OK, but Sandi (Aaron Sandilands) got me once. It’s hard to have a great game, when you’re beaten by that [much], so it’s still disappointing.”

Garlett among the goals

Jeff Garlett’s game was lauded by coach Paul Roos as “outstanding”. Roos said Garlett was often forced to play on a couple of opponents and he made the most of his opportunities. He booted three goals for the game and given the Demons booted just six, it was a fair effort. Garlett, who also took a brilliant hanger, now has 10 goals for the season to lead the club’s goalkicking after five rounds.

Brayshaw’s best so far

Angus Brayshaw’s performance was one of the most pleasing aspects from an otherwise disappointing result. The fifth-gamer had a personal-best 16 touches, but again impressed with his tackling and contested marking. He also chipped in with a goal. And his contested effort against superstar Docker Nat Fyfe earned praise from coach Paul Roos.

Melbourne’s wasted opportunities

Fremantle had 28 scoring shots to 10, but delve deeper into the second half, when Freo blew the game open, and it paints an ugly picture for the Dees. From 11 scoring shots, Melbourne kicked 1.10 in the second half, while Fremantle had 14 scoring shots and registered 10.4.

Two key patches costly for Dees

Although Fremantle won the second quarter by a point and the third term by 10 points, it was Melbourne’s opening quarter and final term – in particular – that were most disappointing. Fremantle booted the first four goals of the match and finished with five for the quarter. It then piled on seven goals to nil in the final term, which resulted in the 68-point win. Ultimately, Freo booted 12 of its 18 goals in the first and last quarter, as Melbourne landed just two in those periods. Otherwise, the second and third terms were relatively competitive, as Fremantle kicked 6.5 to Melbourne’s 4.6 in the second and third quarters.

Freo dominates disposals/uncontested possessions

There were several telling statistics in Fremantle’s win, but one that stood out was disposals. Freo had 416 disposals to 303 and exactly 100 more uncontested possessions than Melbourne (295 to 195).

Nine Freo players had 21 disposals or more –

Such was Fremantle’s dominance with disposals that it had nine players who had 21 touches or more. They were Michael Barlow (32), Clancee Pearce (31), Nat Fyfe (30), David Mundy (28), Stephen Hill (25), Lachie Neale (25), Danyle Pearce (23), Nic Suban (22) and Luke McPharlin (21). In return, Melbourne’s best ball-winner for the day was Daniel Cross with 21 disposals.

The Mayne man

Fremantle had a host of players play key roles in the win, including Lachie Neale, Clancee Pearce, David Mundy, Nat Fyfe, Michael Barlow and Danyle Pearce. But Chris Mayne arguably turned the match in the third quarter, when he kicked two in a row and produced some brilliant tackling. He finished with a game-high 12 tackles and four majors for the match. 

Six in a row

Melbourne dropped its sixth consecutive match against Fremantle, with its most recent win coming in round 13, 2011 at the MCG. Since then, it hasn’t been pretty for the Demons against the Dockers, with their average losing margin being 68.5 points – unfortunately for the red and blue faithful, pretty much spot on with Sunday’s result.

The quote ...

"When things start to go awry, everyone gets into survival mode and it's about, 'how I can get in the best players' and 'I'd rather kick the goal, rather than let my mate kick it’. We still had chances in the last quarter but it became about 'I' rather than the team. They (Fremantle) played team footy for 120 minutes and that's why they're 5-0.” – Paul Roos