Fearless Freo in good form, says Lyon
Fremantle fears no one in this year's premiership race after beating Port Adelaide and securing the double chance, Freo coach Ross Lyon says.
Freo kicked nine straight goals in a second-half blitz to win by eight points after surviving a later Power surge at Patersons Stadium on Saturday.
Lyon said Freo would go into the finals in good form.
"We've beaten Hawthorn, we beat Port, we ran Geelong to a kick and we haven't played Sydney for a long time," he said.
"So we respect everyone but nothing really holds any fears for us.”
Lyon said gaining the double chance was important given the fact that no side has won the premiership from fifth spot since the current finals system was introduced in 2000.
"It's very difficult, it's not impossible, but it's clearly very difficult to win it from outside the top four," Lyon said.
"Everyone has been on a long, hard, arduous season and the reward at the end is we get a double chance.
"We've won a significant amount of games. So it's pleasing for the playing group that they get to have a genuine assault again."
Freo did cut it fine leaving the door slightly ajar for Port Adelaide.
They were 38 points in front at the 12-minute mark of last quarter before conceding the last five goals of the match. The Dockers also ran out of interchanges after using all of their allocated 120, leaving Lachie Neale, Michael Barlow and Zac Clarke to sit on the bench for the last three minutes of the match.
"We were stuck for a while," Lyon said.
"If we run out it's not my fault. I'll blame someone else.
"We really had faith in everyone to do the job."
The Dockers will welcome back star midfielder Nat Fyfe for next week's qualifying final following his two-match suspension.
Luke McPharlin is looking very unlikely to return in time for the first final as he continues to battle his calf problem.
Fellow All Australian defender Michael Johnson is also carrying a back issue but Lyon was adamant he would be fine to play next week.
"His back tightened up on him," Lyon said.
"He came in with a tight back and I thought he was full of merit.
"We're confident he should be able to get up.”