Fremantle senior coach Ross Lyon has opted to rest champion defender Luke McPharlin from taking part in Sunday’s NAB Challenge match against Sydney.
McPharlin was originally named in the 29-man squad to take on the Swans this Sunday at Drummoyne Oval in Sydney, but won’t be travelling.
MATCH PREVIEW
Twenty-six players will take part in the game, including two substitutes.
Lyon said McPharlin had reached his pre-season targets and is just being managed in the lead-up to the round one blockbuster against Port Adelaide on Easter Sunday at Domain Stadium.
“(Luke) McPharlin won’t play, he’s got his (running) minutes up,” Lyon said.
“Our aim was not to take David Mundy and Matthew Pavlich…but they need to get their minutes up to get ready for round one and that’s why we’ll be taking those guys.
“(In a) perfect world they’d have their minutes up and we wouldn’t take them.
“But they need to get through training today, whereas Luke has got plenty of minutes in so we can afford for him to take the week off and then play against West Coast (next week).”
Other players who did not make the squad but played in the first NAB Challenge match were Matt Taberner, Michael Barlow, Lee Spurr and Paul Duffield.
Lyon said Spurr could have got up for the game, but like McPharlin will be rested following a nasty cut in Freo’s 18-point win over Melbourne last Thursday.
“He (Spurr) had 15 stitches put in his lip last week…really brave to come back on, but he needed some cosmetic surgery because he’s a good looking rooster and we wanted to keep that.
“So he won’t play this week as well, even though he could have.
“And Taberner is just a little bit sore so he’ll miss.”
Freo fans will also be extremely happy with Lyon’s injury update on Barlow, Danyle Pearce and Duffield.
“Barlow rolled an ankle, he’ll miss a week or so,” he said.
“Danyle Pearce had a slight calf, he could probably play but we’re being conservative.
“(Duffield will) miss a week (with rib cartilage), he had something similar last year.
“Just for our fans and members, there’s no five or six weeks absence there.
“Maybe next week (he’ll be back)…he should probably play the Eagles.”
Lyon also said that Zac Dawson had “made some really good ground” over the past month in his recovery from a groin injury.
“We’re saying (he will return in) the early rounds,” he said.
“He’s back running and pulling up pain-free, so from there he should make some rapid progress, hopefully.”
Emerging defender Alex Pearce will return from injury soon and Lyon is excited about Freo’s future back line.
“(He) will make his return in the WAFL, we’ve got really high hopes and expectations for him,” Lyon said.
“But he’s had the bone stress reaction, so you’ve got to unload them for six weeks so it doesn’t move to a more serious fracture…we just know we’ve got something very good there.”
The match against Sydney won’t be televised, but Freo fans can watch the live stream of the game via fremantlefc.com.au at 1.10pm WST on Sunday.
