Dockers down Blues as James Aish stars at new club

Without Nat Fyfe and Michael Walters in the middle, a former Pie ran riot against a lacklustre Blues outfit, with Sam Walsh and a returning star the only saving grace.

Sam Walsh is tackled by Sean Darcy.

They landed at Freo, their heads still spinning, as a set of steak knives and a cheap-as-chips final deal of the trade period.

But just one game into the pre-season series, Fremantle’s midfield suddenly looks to have some depth about it thanks to the arrivals of unheralded pair Blake Acres and James Aish.

The duo, both 24, franked their strong summers on the track by playing starring roles in yesterday’s comfortable 47-point Marsh Community Series victory over Carlton in Mandurah.

Acres, who is the same size as Nat Fyfe and boasts the running power of a wingman, stamped his authority on the contest with a 12-disposal second-term before finishing with a game-high 31 touches.

It was no fluke following two strong intra-club outings from Acres, thrown in as part of the Bradley Hill trade to St Kilda, and he looms as a key plank this season.

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Aish was grabbed from Collingwood for some late pick swaps as the clock ticked down on trade period deadline day last October, as the Pies tried to clear salary cap space.

His new coach, and former assistant coach, Justin Longmuir sees him as a Mr Fixit who can be thrown around. Yesterday Aish showed he might be useful at the centre of the action as he led a midfield that was missing Fyfe and Michael Walters.

Beginning in the centre square alongside youngsters Andrew Brayshaw and Adam Cerra, Aish showed them how it was done as an inside midfielder before ending the game in defence.

He was in everything and finished with six clearances and six tackles in his 24-possession game.

While a near full-strength West Coast will pose a bigger challenge for the new-look Dockers next weekend, it wasn’t hard to find positives in their first outing of the new year.

James Aish was everywhere in the Dockers’ win.

WHO ELSE STOOD OUT

Rory Lobb and Griffin Logue are both critical to the Dockers for structural reasons and they handled that responsibility brilliantly.

Lobb was a towering figure with 23 disposals and 13 marks, starting forward before taking over ruck duties when Sean Darcy was injured and unable to continue after halftime.

He dominated the air, taking five contested marks in a game where just two players took more than one, and kicked a last-quarter goal.

Logue was assured in defence as the Dockers come to terms with the absences of Alex Pearce and Joel Hamling.

Small forward Lachie Schultz might have pencilled his name into the round one team with three first-half goals before finishing with four.

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TIME TO GET SERIOUS

It might have been a pre-season game on the last day of summer, but the two committed teams provided a welcome change of pace after Friday night’s worthy but leisurely bushfire bash.

Tempers flared early in the second term, with Lachie Schultz’s spoil on Blues veteran Kade Simpson prompting a fiery response from co-captain Sam Docherty.

It sparked a big melee before Schultz was handed a free kick which he used to set up a goal for James Aish.

GOT THE BLUES

Coach David Teague went 6-5 in the second half of last season after replacing the sacked Brendon Bolton but is starting fresh in 2020 and would have come to Perth hoping for more.

There were some new faces unveiled by Carlton, with quality defender Sam Docherty a virtual new recruit as he made a solid return from back-to-back anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Jack Martin did some good things from limited game time in his first outing for the Blues, while fellow new addition Jack Newnes didn’t have a big impact.

SCORE

Fremantle 3.3 6.7 8.8 13.12 (90)

Carlton 1.2 3.4 5.7 5.13 (43)

BEST

Fremantle: R Lobb, J Aish, B Acres, G Logue, L Schultz, L Ryan.

Carlton: S Walsh, Z Fisher, L Simpson, M Gibbons, L Jones.

INJURIES

Fremantle: S Darcy (calf)

Carlton:

Umpires: Nick Foot, Matt Stevic, Simon Meredith

Crowd: 5127 at David Gray’s Arena

Originally published as Dockers down Blues as James Aish stars at new club