Round 9, 1996 - Fremantle vs Richmond

A dominant second half has seen Fremantle record its first ever win over Richmond, beating them soundly on home soil by 54 points.

With the game in the balance at half time, the Dockers piled on 10 goals to 2 in the second half to run away 17.18 (120) to 10.6 (66) winners.

Jason Torney looks on as another goal is chalked up by Freo

The loss continued Richmond's disappointing start to the season, who sat at just four wins from its opening nine games.

Fremantle were out to prove a point in front of its home fans having lost to the lowly Fitzroy only a week earlier, and jumped out to a three-goal lead early before the Tigers were able to reel them back in by the end of the first quarter.

Versatile key position player Mark Neeld's day was done early when he copped a nasty knee to the ribs, but the Tigers were able to still persist on and hit the lead early in the second term.

Sadly, it would turn out that this would be the last game of Mark Neeld's career. After crossing from Geelong, he played 26 games for Richmond between 1994-1996, kicking 16 goals.

It continued what was quite a fiery matchup at times, with tensions boiling over at different points with some off-ball hits drawing the attention of the umpires.

Clearly smarting from their surprise loss a week earlier though, the Dockers were far too quick and damaging across the ground, and didn't give their opponents an inch or really any opportunity to work their way back into the game after halftime.

Midfielders Wayne Campbell and Paul Broderick were two of Richmond's best, with the former working his way into some form after a lean couple of weeks.

Campbell finished with 25 disposals and a goal, while Broderick who wasn't as prolific, had some important touches around the clearances and finished with 17.

Matthew Rogers continued his career best season with 17 touches and two goals, while the key posts at each end, Matthew Richardson and Darren Gaspar, put in solid performances without setting the world on fire.

The game saw the debut of 18 year old Damien Ryan, who did quite well picking up 10 disposals in limited game time, and showed that he could definitely hold his own at AFL level.

Stats for the game courtesy of AFL Tables

A Fighting Fury player ratings - click here for explanation

Paul Broderick	8
Wayne Campbell	8
Matthew Rogers	8
Darren Gaspar	6
Matthew Richardson	6
Justin Charles	5
Brendon Gale	5
Chris Naish	5
David Bourke	4
Michael Gale	4
Chris Bond	4
Jamie Tape	2
Ashley Prescott	2
Jason Torney	2
Duncan Kellaway	1
Nick Daffy	1
Mark Merenda	1
Ross Funcke	1
Damien Ryan	1
Greg Dear	0
Mark Neeld	0