WILLIAMSTOWN 3.16 (34)
FRANKSTON 10.15 (75)

JUNE 20, 1999.

That was the last time Frankston knocked over Williamstown at its Point Gellibrand fortress.

To put that into perspective, it was also the day the late, great, Shane Warne took 4/33 in a man-of-the-match performance for Australia to thrash Pakistan for eight wickets in the World Cup Final at Lord’s.

The Springvale Scorpions were heading towards a VFL premiership win over North Ballarat, North Melbourne was on its way winning the AFL Grand Final, Lou Vega’s Mambo No.5 was the end-of-year No.1 on the Australian music charts, John Howard was just three years into his 11-year stint as Prime Minister of Australia and people were panicking about the possibility of a Y2K bug.

Oh, and 14 of Saturday’s night’s drought-breaking Dolphins weren’t even born, while seven others were less than two years old.

August 8, 2005.

That was the day Frankston last defeated Williamstown anywhere – Sandringham won the second of its VFL threepeat by knocking over Werribee, Sydney was six weeks away from breaking its 72-year AFL premiership drought, Axel F’s Crazy Frog was No.1 and Howard was still in The Lodge.

The Dolphins had lost 19 and drawn one of the past 20 matches against the Seagulls back to that day at Frankston Park in 2005, with Williamstown’s dominance stretching to 24½ of the past 26 matches.

But all that meant nothing under the Saturday night lights as Frankston buried its demons in a match that never reached any great heights except for the continued form of Will Fordham and Josh Newman and a late screamer from one of the Seagulls’ best players in Kallan Dawson.

The visitors kicked three goals to none with the wind in the first term and held the home team to just nine behinds for the first half as best-on-ground Newman cleaned up expertly across half-back line on his way to 32 disposals, 11 rebound-50s, five-inside-50s and a classy third-quarter goal in his team’s game-breaking surge, while Taylin Duman (20, nine marks, seven rebounds) was similarly impassable.

Williamstown finally managed its first major through Max Philpot in the opening minute of the third term, but Fordham answered immediately and the Dolphins kicked 4.5 to 1.2 for the term to lead by 37 points and set up a party time last term as they restricted the home team its lowest ever score in 70 head-to-head matches.

And all this came despite losing key defender Max Williams, key forward Kai Owens and coach Danny Ryan to illness before the game, with assistant coach Rikki Johnston taking the reins with aplomb.

Fordham backed up last week’s 27-disposal, three-goal effort with four crucial majors in a lowscoring contest, bobbing up just when his team needed him, while Connor Riley (29, seven inside-50s) linked up well on the outside, Sam Fletcher (23, six marks, five rebounds, five tackles, one goal) was in everything, 50-gamer Trent Mynott (21, eight tackles) and Ryley Stoddart (20) provided run-and-carry, James Rendell (24 hitouts, five clearances) and Liam Reidy (18 hitouts, five marks) were important in the ruck in the absence of Williamstown big man Tom Downie and Bailey Lambert (16, five marks) showed his class in his first game since Round 1.

Williamstown looked like it might have turned a corner in its gutsy win over Gold Coast last week, but endured a dirty night despite the best efforts of Dawson (17 disposals, 11 marks), Liam Hunt (24, six tackles), Corey Preston (19, six marks, seven rebounds), Finbar O’Dwyer (18, nine marks), Jake Greiser (16, six marks) and Teia Miles (18, seven rebounds).

Justin Plapp’s men are in full rebuild mode after losing almost 1900 games in experience since the 2019 Grand Final, with only five members of that team playing on Saturday night, although Mitch Hibberd and Billy Myers remain on the list as well.

COLLINGWOOD 13.12 (90)
FOOTSCRAY 4.11 (35)

COLLINGWOOD blew Footscray away in the last quarter of an otherwise uninspiring contest to win by 55 points in Saturday afternoon’s only game at AIA Centre.

The Magpies always seemed to have the match under control without being safe, leading by four, eight and 17 points at the three breaks, but banged on seven goals to one in the last quarter to turn a lowscoring struggle into a percentage booster that lifted them into the top two ahead of Sunday’s matches.

Nathan Murphy starred for Collingwood in his first appearance of the season, picking up 20 disposals, taking 12 marks and firing six rebounds, while assistant coach Neville Jetta had his best game for the Magpies with 22 touches and 10 marks and Mason Cox (19, seven marks, 47 hitouts, six clearances, six inside-50s, five rebounds) destroyed the Bulldogs’ makeshift ruck division of Josh Patullo and Josh Schache.

Trent Bianco (19, nine marks, five tackles), Campbell Lane (18, seven marks), Lachie Tardrew (18, eight tackles, two goals), Jacob Booth and Jack Raines (three goals each) were also important in Collingwood’s win.

Bulldogs captain Lachie Sullivan did everything in his power to keep his team in the game with a terrific 34-disposal, eight-mark, eight-clearance performance, while Hayden Crozier (25, 13 marks, six rebounds) put his hand up for an AFL recall, Ewan Macpherson (22, seven clearances, six inside-50s, Schache (19, eight marks, one goal) and Charlie Cormack (10 marks) could also hold their heads high.

Despite Cox’s tap dominance, Footscray won the clearances 44-35, but coach Stewart Edge would be disappointed his team laid just 44 tackles to the Magpies’ 66.

Boom father-son draftee Sam Darcy lined up in defence on Matt Wetering (0.2) and will be better for the run after picking up seven disposals and two marks on debut.

SMITHY’S VFL LADDER, ROUND 8 – click here

SUNDAY: Southport v GWS (Austworld Centre, 11.35am); North Melbourne v Casey Demons (Aegis Park, 12pm); Northern Bullants v Port Melbourne (Genis Steel Oval, 1.05pm); Box Hill Hawks v Richmond (Box Hill City Oval, 2.05pm). Bye: Brisbane Lions, Carlton, Coburg, Essendon, Geelong, Gold Coast, Sandringham, Sydney, Werribee.

THIS WEEK

ROUND 9: Saturday, May 21: Port Melbourne v Southport (ETU Stadium, 12.05pm); Footscray v Gold Coast (Victoria University Whitten Oval, 12.05pm); Coburg v Sydney (Piranha Park, 1.05pm); Brisbane Lions v Williamstown (Moreton Bay Sports Complex, 1.35pm); Richmond v Essendon (MCG, 3.05pm). Sunday, May 22: GWS v Werribee (Giants Stadium, 10.05am); Carlton v Sandringham (Ikon Park, 12pm); Northern Bullants v Geelong (Preston City Oval, 1.05pm). Bye: Box Hill Hawks, Casey Demons, Collingwood, Frankston, North Melbourne.

NEXT WEEK: ROUND 10: Friday, May 27: Sydney v Richmond (Lakeside Oval, 2.05pm). Saturday, May 28: Southport v Brisbane Lions (Fankhauser Reserve, 12.05pm); Williamstown v Footscray (Williamstown, 2.05pm); Gold Coast v Box Hill Hawks (Austworld Centre, 3.05pm). Sunday, May 29: Essendon v Coburg (Windy Hill, 11.35am); Werribee v Collingwood (Avalon Airport Oval, 12pm); Geelong v GWS (GMHBA Stadium, 12.05pm); Northern Bullants v Carlton (Preston City Oval, 1.05pm); Frankston v Casey Demons (Skybus Stadium, 2.05pm); Sandringham v North Melbourne (Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Beach Oval, 2.15pm). Bye: Port Melbourne.

THEN: ROUND 11: Friday, June 3: Brisbane Lions v Northern Bullants (Moreton Bay Sports Complex, 3.35pm); Footscray v Geelong (Victoria University Whitten Oval, 4.05pm). Saturday, June 4: Casey Demons v Sydney (MCG, 3.45pm). Sunday, June 5: Collingwood v Gold Coast (AIA Centre, 11.05am); Coburg v Frankston (Piranha Park, 12.35pm); North Melbourne v Box Hill Hawks (Aegis Park, 1.05pm); Port Melbourne v Williamstown (ETU Stadium, 2.10pm). Bye: Carlton, Essendon, GWS, Richmond, Sandringham, Southport, Werribee.

Twitter: @BRhodesVFL

All VFL matches in 2022 are live-streamed free. The match of the round can be viewed on Channel 7, while all remaining games are streamed live and on demand via www.afl.com.au and the AFL Live and VFL apps. Radio 3WBC is again broadcasting Box Hill Hawks matches.
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