Round 7, 1997
Fremantle vs Melbourne
Saturday 10 May
Venue: WACA
Attendance: 18,198
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | |
| Fremantle | 4.8 | 7.9 | 14.16 | 17.22.124 |
| Melbourne | 1.4 | 5.6 | 7.8 | 10.9.69 |
Fremantle win by 55 points
Goalkickers: Sean Charles 3, Anthony McDonald 2, Alastair Clarkson 1, David Neitz 1, Craig Nettelbeck 1, Todd Viney 1, Shane Woewodin 1
Brownlow votes:
Nil
Milestones:
First goal
Anthony McDonald (4th game)
Shane Woewodin (7th game)
A week after President Joseph Gutnick had to be talked out of sacking coach Neil Balme, Melbourne's sixth consecutive loss left them two games adrift on the bottom of the ladder. Even worse, one of their few good players in the losing run David Neitz suffered a broken jaw one minute into the third quarter.
After going into quarter time 22 points down, the visitors briefly made a game of it by kicking the margin to three points. Fremantle responded to make the difference 15 at half time, when Neitz was moved into defence. At the first bounce of the quarter he was collected by a bump and went off, which was followed by the Dockers kicking seven unanswered goals. Melbourne's injury crisis ran so deep that they were forced to use Leigh Newton in the ruck when Jim Stynes went forward to cover Neitz.
Best were Anthony McDonald, Stynes and Viney. Stynes dislocated a finger.
Neale Balme said "We've just got to do what we can week by week. We'd like to be as competitive as we can all the time and doing that ongoing development and rebuilding, if you like, but we're just not winning enough games". He also said "I've always wondered exactly how rock bottom is defined", in response to a question from a journalist.
Notes
Age gives the crowd as 18,547.
Reserves
Hawthorn 12.6.78 d. Melbourne 7.17.59
Goals - Yze 2, J. McDonald 2, Nicholson 1, Robertson 1, Winterton 1
Best - Yze, Nicholson, Grgic
Media
Age - 11/05/1997, 12/05/1997
Football Record - R8 1997