This was the first time Collingwood had drawn so few people to a home game at the MCG since World War II when in round 5 of 1940, 20,043 attended. The league's power club could even have lost money at the gate for the first time in decades.

Collingwood with most of their first-choice forwards out and their formerly first-choice forward back in the team as a last resort, it appeared unlikely that against a traditionally scungy Ross Lyon defence they would be able to kick a score. Those assumptions were rendered not just wrong but absolutely misplaced for it was Fremantle who could not score. The Dockers kicked 1.4 for the first half - the second lowest half-time score of Lyon's tenure.