Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
AFL great Matthew Lloyd has issued a mea culpa over calling for Fremantle to drop Pat Voss after the forward starred in their semifinal win over Geelong.
Voss, who bounced back into form against the Cats while also playing a negating role on their star defender Tom Stewart, joined an exclusive club by slotting four goals in the Dockers’ 14-point win at Optus Stadium on Friday night.
Throughout the club’s history, the great Matthew Pavlich is their only other player to have slotted four or more goals in a final. Fremantle’s all-time leading goal-kicker and longest-serving captain achieved the feat on four occasions.
After the Dockers’ shock qualifying final loss to Hawthorn last week, Lloyd called for Voss to lose his place in their side, saying their chief antagonist had been “average for a month now”.
On Sunday, the Essendon legend conceded he had made an error.
“I got it wrong,” Lloyd said on Nine.
“He took the Tom Stewart match-up and there were no intercept marks from Tom Stewart in the first half of the game, he had no influence, but then, Voss also kicked four goals.
“That’s a big performance.”
Voss slotted 41 goals in 22 home and away games while also playing shut-down roles on some of the AFL’s premier intercept defenders, including All Australian full-back Callum Wilkie and Hawthorn’s James Sicily.
But the hot-headed Hawks captain well and truly had the better of their qualifying final match-up, with Voss going without a goal as Sicily notched 26 disposals and plucked 10 marks.
If Fremantle topple Sydney and Hawthorn get over Brisbane in next week’s preliminary finals, the pair would be in line to lock horns again on the grand final stage.
