Fremantle has gone from the beast to beauty, writes Sam Edmund in The Field Marshal
THE FIELD MARSHAL: IF Fremantle last year had a face only a mother could love, after one game this year it is on the beauty pageant runway.
Fremantle
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IF Fremantle last year had a face only a mother could love, after one game this year it is on the beauty pageant runway.
In what could prove a radical shift in Ross Lyon’s philosophy, Round 1 has shown us the Dockers could be Beauty and the Beast in the same package.
Yes, the suffocation techniques of Lyon’s Dockers still put a shiver through rivals. Yes, the manic defence-first philosophy has been brutally effective.
But let’s be honest, the words “Fremantle” and “good to watch” haven’t exactly been joined at the hip. Until now.
After last year’s Grand Final loss to Hawthorn, the overwhelming question aimed at the Dockers was whether a side that ranked 13th for points scored (91 a game) had the offensive artillery to go all the way? They could stop, but could they score?
After taking flight in a Round 1 scorching of Collingwood at Etihad Stadium, the answer would have to be a resounding yes.
Some will say it’s only the first game, others will say Collingwood was woeful, but the statistics lift the lid on the purple machine that is now mixing brute force with sex appeal.
Now when Fremantle wins the ball in defence, it is thinking handball more often than spreading the ball by foot, which it most in the AFL last year.
Then it does what many dare not — drives forward directly down the centre corridor. The Dockers were a high corridor team last year, using the middle 34 per cent of the time, but that figure ballooned to 40 per cent in Round 1. To put that in perspective, the next highest was Sydney at 32 per cent.
When the Dockers won the ball last year, they were hellbent on holding on to it; going backwards, sideways, anyway — as long as they kept it. Against Collingwood, it was extraordinary how direct they were.
Last season, Lyon’s men went long only 35 per cent of the time, ranked 13th in the league.
Against the Magpies, they bombed it long 48 per cent of the time, 4 per cent more than any other team on the first weekend. The direct approach generated 65 inside-50s, more than the Dockers had in any game on their run to last year’s Grand Final.
Coast-to-coast goals aren’t exactly a Fremantle specialty either. In fact, from all the kick-ins last season, it mustered only 13 goals. Against Collingwood, it kicked 3.2 from that source.
Was it a Round 1 anomaly? Was it more because of Collingwood being so poor than Fremantle being so good? None of that really matters because even more so than in the Dockers’ big wins last year, this was a new level of risk-taking. It was very unFremantle and it was brilliant.
Lyon, who told guests at the club’s season launch he wanted an extra two goals a game, may have taken his players to adventure world.
In his four Grand Final losses with St Kilda and Fremantle, Lyon’s side finished with 68, 68, 52 and 62 points.
You get the impression that if the Dockers make it to the big dance this year, the ‘‘points-for’’ column may be just as impressive as the ‘‘points-against’’.
GOING DIRECT
Last year Freo went long 35 per cent of the time, ranked 13th in the competition.
48 per cent of kicks went long against Collingwood, 4 per cent higher than any other team so far in the round.
Long bombers
Danyle Pearce 11
Stephen Hill 9
Michael Johnson 9
Paul Duffield 8
David Mundy 8
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