Posts tagged News

Freo defender Michael Johnson has a good view of the field ahead of him from half-back.

On Saturday, playing in his 150th game for the club, Johnson liked what he saw from one of his favourite players.

The 28-year-old is big fan of the abilities of fellow Indigenous Freo Docker Stephen Hill, who he believes will one day own the record for most games played at Freo by an Indigenous player, currently held by the retired Antoni Grover with 202 games.

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Danyle Pearce proved he was not a falling star in his Fremantle debut.

On Saturday night, the 2006 NAB AFL Rising Star put in a performance that would have left Port Adelaide fans wondering why they let the star midfielder go.

Though influential in the first quarter, Pearce, who joined Fremantle from the Power as a free agent in the summer, really came alive when he dribbled his first goal through from a tight angle late in the second quarter.

It followed an embarrassing incident in which he and teammate Chris Mayne collided while trying to mark without any Eagles in sight.

“I did see Mayney coming through and I thought ‘key forward, let him go’ and then I thought ‘oh, no, if I don’t go and he doesn’t then that will look even worse’.

“So, luckily it snuck through and, yeah, lucky I kicked it.”

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Ross, what did you make of the match?

We were really pleased to get the four points. Round one is really important. We all come off big summers full of hope and expectation. We thought we were in really good shape and that was proven.
It was a slow start. I think you have to admire the Eagles, the reality is they were depleted in some areas, particularly in the midfield and the way they came out and took the game right up to us, but in the end I thought our preparation and total teamsmanship in the end was quite dominant. There were signs well before half time but we just couldn’t hurt them on the scoreboard and they scored pretty easy. Once we tidied a few of those things up, I thought our third quarter was dominant and there was a real arm wrestle in the last. A lot to like, but a lot to improve on.

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Friday night’s semi-final loss to Adelaide was a tough ending to Fremantle’s encouraging finals campaign, but it could prove the final act in a pivotal season in the club’s history.

On the back of the team’s finals heroics it’s easy to forget Freo’s September dreams were circling the drain with the club sitting 13th on the ladder after round 14 on the back of five losses from six games.

Ross Lyon and his game plan were subjected to some intense scrutiny before a stirring fightback in the second half of the season saw them fall about 10 points shy of participating in a preliminary final.

Fremantle won nine of 10 games, including an upset elimination final win against Geelong, before stumbling against the Crows.

Ruckman Aaron Sandilands agrees the performances in the second half of 2012 will give he and his teammates plenty to work with next year and beyond, but the final sting in the tail of the season may prove to be the biggest spur.

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