Fremantle captain Alex Pearce has described their begin to the season as vital amid a quest to stamp themselves as one of many groups to beat in 2023.
The Dockers will open their season with an away conflict in opposition to St Kilda in what’s the first of 5 matches in opposition to groups that missed the finals final season. Fremantle’s season then will get harder with six finalists from final yr within the subsequent seven video games.
Fremantle performed two non-finalists in the course of the pre-season, dropping a match simulation contest in opposition to Adelaide earlier than beating Port Adelaide in final week’s follow match.
Pearce warned it will be silly to make assumptions about how any groups will carry out however pressured the significance of gaining early wins.
“It’s a bit of a trap to start planning the season on who you are playing and your opposition. The start of the season is critical for us, but not because of who we are playing,” he stated.
“It’s because we need to be bringing our best footy right from the word go and we really want wins on the board. Start of the season is always important.
“After the Adelaide game, we were slightly disappointed. We didn’t play how we wanted to. But to be able to play the next week and play our brand of football a bit more and how we’ve looked during the pre-season was nice. It gives us a really good building block.”
The Dockers began final season 7-1 and the membership’s defensive weapons had been all on present. Fremantle conceded a mean of solely 68 factors per recreation for the season, however with groups anticipated to assault extra this yr, Pearce stated Fremantle should evolve.
“We want to be able to score more as well,” Pearce stated.
“As defenders, we play a role in that with our ball movement from the back half. We’re looking to really take the game on as defenders as well. It’s not all about limiting the opposition.
“We want to get dangerous on the offensive end and I think we’ve got some players who can do that – Hayden Young, Jordan Clark, Brandon Walker, Luke Ryan. These guys are really dangerous when they’ve got the ball in their hands.
“It makes it harder on opposition forwards if they have to chase us around a bit and do some more defending. It means they’ve got less energy when the ball is coming their way. We want to be able to test the opposition in all areas.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
