Fielding their youngest side of 2017 and with much of that inexperience in the backline, Fremantle went into Sunday’s clash with North Melbourne reliant on the leadership of Michael Johnson and Joel Hamling.
So young defender Luke Ryan had right to be concerned when Hamling picked up a hip injury in the opening term and spent multiple stints on the sidelines.
At an average age of 23.66 years with an average of 68.2 games experience, Fremantle fielded the third youngest and second most inexperienced team of round 16.
For comparison, Fremantle’s round two side against Port Adelaide was almost three years older at 26.46 years with an average of 111.3 games of experience.
Fremantle’s back three featured Ryan (21, 5 games), Griffin Logue (19, 7 games) and Hamling (24, 38 games), with 21-year-old Lachie Weller and 22-year-old Ethan Hughes joining Johnson at half-back.
Ryan credited Johnson and especially the injured Hamling for their work in managing Freo’s defenders.
“We knew we would be under pressure, especially when Joel was off injured, but we just kept doing what we were doing,” Ryan said.
“Johnno and Joel led from the front with their voice and their experience which really helped us younger kids out.
“It’s what got us over the line I’d say.”
Ryan credited Hamling’s resilience for toughing the game out, picking up four spoils and two intercept marks for the game – the equal most for Freo in both categories.
“Joel had the injury from the first quarter and he just stuck it out the whole game,” Ryan said.
“He didn’t really take a backward step. He did everything right to get us over the line, I’m pretty proud of Joel and I’m just impressed with how tough he is.”
Ryan picked up a career high 19 disposals, seven marks and six rebound 50s for the game.
He also totalled three spoils, two intercept marks and laid five tackles.
A strong contested mark in the third term was Ryan’s most crucial contribution to the game in a quarter where Freo’s defenders limited North’s dominance to just two goals for the term.
“It was just in the moment,” said Ryan about the mark.
“Again I was just reading the play from Johnno and Joel with their talk from behind and it really just gave us confidence to roll back and take those marks.
“They believe in us which makes it a lot easier for us.”
