Anything and Everything Fremantle
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Bottomless Pitt
Feb 25th
Fremantle midfielder Jayden Pitt is a long-term prospect with a long-term vision of the type of footballer he wants to be – and it’s a vision that might surprise some.
Lightly-framed, and in a phase of his development that occasionally requires force feeding to gain weight, Pitt has played the majority of his football as a wingman and a high half-forward, focusing on “outside positions”.
They are roles that suit his strengths – an elite running ability and polished skills on both sides of his body – but the second-year midfielder doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as an outside player.
“We keep saying you want to do the team thing and put your head over the ball, so that’s an area I want to be really good at and I think the club wants me to be really good at as well,” Pitt toldfremantlefc.com.au.
“[Putting on weight] will help, but there’s no reason why I can’t do that (win contested possessions) now.”
Time for Freo youngsters to step up
Feb 25th
Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has challenged the club’s best young players to “step up” and share the load with captain Matthew Pavlich.
In an exclusive interview with thewest.com.au in Esperance on the club’s community visit there this week, Lyon laid down the gauntlet to young guns Nat Fyfe, Stephen Hill and Hayden Ballantyne to play increased midfield roles to allow Pavlich to play in attack.
Lyon also warned there would be no “magic wand” waved to make Fremantle a premiership team and that a significant amount of work lay ahead.
Part of that work involved investigations by himself and the club’s sports science manager, Jason Weber, into Fremantle’s recent poor injury record in a bid to get improved player availability.
Skipper loyal to Harvey
Feb 25th
Matthew Pavlich hopes he will be lifelong friends with sacked Fremantle coach Mark Harvey, but said he had to immediately give his loyalty to new man Ross Lyon.
After a week where the tension between Harvey and Lyon again flared, the Dockers skipper said he tried to make sense of the bombshell coaching switch last September by looking at it as a “simple business transaction”.
Pavlich said he only heard about the coup on the day Harvey was sacked and that the leadership group played no part in getting rid of him.
Ballantyne hits midfield at top speed
Feb 25th
By SportsNewsFirst
Ruck master Aaron Sandilands says diminutive teammate Hayden Ballantyne has attacked his new midfield role at top speed – and will bring excitement and energy to the Dockers’ engine room this season.
As Sandilands returns from the debilitating toe injury which ruined his season, and played a part in the eventual downfall of former coach Mark Harvey, his successor Ross Lyon has plotted over the summer how to maximise Sandilands’ stoppage dominance.
The AFL’s tallest, and some would argue most important, player has spent the pre-season building the strength in his injured toe, while developing new relationships with installed ruck coach Mark Stone who arrived from Sydney with Lyon.
Dockers eye big gun in free agency stampede
Feb 24th
Fremantle are positioned to target a marquee player this year under new AFL free agency rules that will open up some of the competition’s biggest names to interstate raids.
St Kilda star Brendon Goddard headlines a pool of 72 players who can change clubs at the end of this season as free agents.
Players who have spent at least eight years at one club will qualify under the new rules.
The Saints have a clutch of key players in that bracket, with Goddard, Leigh Montagna and Sam Fisher all coming out of contracts at the end of 2012.
Geelong’s Steve Johnson, Hawthorn workhorse Brad Sewell, Richmond on-baller Brett Deledio and Collingwood premiership duo Travis Cloke and Heath Shaw are others who fulfil the requirements.
The month-long free agency window starts on October 1. The AFL is due to announce the official list of uncontracted players on March 20.
Fremantle are believed to have at least $800,000 available in their salary cap with which to lure a big-name free agent for 2013.
Trimmer Suban aims to get lucky
Feb 24th
Nick Suban has changed his weight – down three kilograms.
The club has changed coach, Ross Lyon taking over from Mark Harvey.
What the 21-year-old Docker defender most needs now is a change of luck.
Suban played all 22 games for Fremantle in 2009 and rivalled Stephen Hill as the club’s best first-year player.
He impressed the Dockers hierarchy so much they asked him to nominate for the club’s leadership group. Suban had captained his school, the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup and Victoria Country in the national 18s titles, but politely declined the request.
“I thought it probably wasn’t in my best interests being a first-year player,” he said.
“I felt I had to earn my stripes a bit more and play more consistent footy. I am still working on that. Hopefully down the track I can put my name up but at the moment I have just got to play consistent footy and do the best for the side.”
Morabito nearing the end of long road
Feb 24th
Fremantle’s Anthony Morabito could be ready to play within two weeks in what would be his first game for almost 18 months.
Morabito’s troubled rehabilitation from a knee reconstruction has been a source of frustration for all at Fremantle, but coach Ross Lyon said the youngster was closing in on a return.
“Anthony obviously had three significant hiccups coming off an ACL, which is really frustrating,” said Lyon in Esperance.
“But he is really up and going. He did full football training back at Fremantle today.
“He is clocking over 30km a week so he should get the last two trial games in. We are pretty excited about that.”
Morabito, still only 20, played 23 of Fremantle’s 24 matches in 2010 but injured his knee at pre-season training in December that year.
I wouldn’t do it: Harvey
Feb 24th
Former Fremantle boss Mark Harvey says he would never follow Ross Lyon’s example and hold secret talks with a club knowing the current coach was still under contract
Asked about whether there was a brotherhood among coaches that dictated behaviour of those in the coaching game, Harvey was clear in his view.
“Put it this way,” Harvey said on SEN’s Morning Glory. “If I was asked by another club and that coach had a contract, I certainly wouldn’t be entertaining it.”
When told of Lyon’s comments on On The Couch on Monday night, where the Fremantle coach said he wouldn’t be calling Harvey, the new Brisbane Lions assistant bristled.
“If he feels that way, that’s fine,” he said.
“I certainly won’t be picking up the phone.”
While Harvey was shocked and disappointed to lose the Fremantle job, he said it was the Lions’ relentless pursuit of him that convinced him not to take a break.
Synthetic Grass At Home in Patersons Stadium
Feb 22nd
Perth’s notable synthetic grass specialists, Green Planet Grass, is pleased to announce its involvement in one of Western Australia’s most iconic sporting stadiums, for having installed new surfaces on the raceways at Patersons Stadium, traditionally known as Subiaco Oval.
(PRWEB) February 22, 2012
Green Planet Grass is proud to install its hardwearing commercial synthetic turf on behalf of the WA Football Commission, giving AFL teams a top class surface to run out on even before they cross the boundary line. Patersons Stadium is home to AFL clubs West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers; it also hosted the Western Australian Football League’s Grand Final and numerous other international sporting events and music concerts.
I’d pay $1.5m for Buddy: Lyon
Feb 22nd
Fremantle coach Ross Lyon says he would pay Hawthorn’s Lance Franklin $1.5 million a year to come to the club.
Commenting on rumours Collingwood power forward Travis Cloke might be lured to new club Greater Western Sydney by an offer like the one Gold Coast used to prise Gary Ablett from Geelong, Lyon said there were “clearly” $1.5 million a year players in the AFL these days.
The AFL’s annual salary cap figures released this week revealed that two players (Ablett and an unknown second player) were now being paid in excess of $1 million per year.
“I tell you what, I would give Buddy $1.5 million tomorrow, there you go,” Lyon said.
