Fremantle could make multiple changes for Sunday’s clash with Essendon as they look to bounce back from heavy losses against Richmond and Sydney, according to senior coach Ross Lyon.
Lyon said the obvious change was bringing in ruckman Jon Griffin for the suspended Sean Darcy but added that he would consider more changes despite limited availability from Freo’s Peel Thunder ranks.
Potential inclusions included midfielder Lachie Neale, who looks to return from a minor knee injury, and key defender Sam Collins.
Lyon said injuries to key players had stretched Fremantle thin late in the season.
“We would like to be more competitive,” Lyon said.
“If you want to draw a line and give some context to some of the challenges we face, when we played Richmond and beat them at the MCG (in round eight), five of our starting six midfield were in the stands watching (in round 22).
“A few of them were past best and fairest winners in Sandilands and Neale, as well as Connor Blakely and Michael Walters, who could have won our best and fairest (prior to his season-ending injury in round 18), and Ed Langdon, who gives us enormous run.
“If you bump them back in with (injured defender) Alex Pearce and Harley Bennell, there’s a bit to like.”
Lyon said he hopes Neale will be available to boost Fremantle’s midfield for the final game of the season.
“Lachie’s on the improve, he’s a chance,” Lyon said.
“We won’t know until later in the week, but it would be really good for him.
“Off a limited pre-season, he’s produced a pretty solid year really, not at his very best. If he could finish strongly, that would be good for us and good for him.”
Lyon said that a young and inexperienced backline were found out against Richmond, with Fremantle struggling to return the ball from their defensive 50.
Freo’s back six against included five players with less than 50 games experience in Ryan Nyhuis, Luke Ryan, Griffin Logue, Ethan Hughes, Joel Hamling and Lachlie Weller.
Nyhuis, Ryan, Logue and Weller are all aged 21 and under with Hughes 22 and Hamling 23.
“It was a very young backline, it was incredibly young,” Lyon said.
“We had been pretty good, post the St Kilda game, we’ve been quite good at getting it out of there.
“It’s just some inexperience down there, no composure (with players) kicking the ball up the middle a couple of times.
“We lost our run and you get stagnant.
“We’ve been very competitive until the last two weeks.”
Lyon highlighted that he was more likely to opt for youth in Collins over fellow defender Zac Dawson, who is likely to retire at the end of the season.
“There’s a couple of key defenders, Zac Dawson and Sam Collins, we can look at because our D50 was a bit of a black hole,” Lyon said.
“It went in and the ball didn’t come out too often. We need to look at that and there’s some challenges within that.
“If we needed two tall defenders (Fremantle would play Dawson), but one it would be Sam Collins.”
