Mitigating the impact of Adelaide’s star players will take an internal, not external, focus, according to senior coach Ross Lyon.
Freo face the top of the table Crows on Saturday night at Adelaide Oval, with the home team boasting an assortment of star players including forward Eddie Betts, midfielder Rory Sloane and defender Rory Laird.
Lyon said that the key to defeating the Crows was through a strong team performance rather than targeting any individual player.
“I think we’ve acknowledged that Adelaide have a lot of good players. They’re a really good team and we’re going to have to plan and prepare well,” Lyon said.
“But we want to focus on our own footy and our focus has been about improvement.”
“Even out of the weekend, we learnt a lot out of our first quarter and we turned it around.
“After our first quarter we won the remaining three quarters by 55 points and the reason we could do that was we improved our own football.”
“We didn’t really tune in on (Carlton’s) Bryce Gibbs or Partick Cripps”
Lyon said that increasing Fremantle’s pressure was crucial to combat a side of Adelaide’s quality.
The Crows have averaged 81.3 points per game from turnovers, the most in the AFL, while Fremantle averages 40.2 per game, the lowest in the AFL.
“They’re the best offensive team from possessions gained in the AFL so we’re going to have out work cut out for us,” Lyon said.
“(Against) a team on top of the ladder, you’re going to have to compete fiercely and put a lot on pressure, and that’s where we have improved.
“We’re putting a lot more pressure on the opposition.
“Earlier in the year we gave away a lot of time and space and I think if we can put some pressure on time and space it will help everyone, particularly for who is playing on Eddie Betts at any point in time.”
After starting the season 0-2, Fremantle has improved to 6-3 and sit fifth on the ladder.
Lyon said a part of that improvement has been due to the team working for each other.
“Our forward 50 tackles have picked up a little bit but it’s our desire and ability to work for one another,” Lyon said.
“There’s a lot of covering done in AFL football and I thought our teammanship and our covering and our selflessness has really improved but we still need to improve plenty.”
